


Teammates For Life

by Homeo (Wherefore_art_thou_Homeo)



Category: Corpse Party (Video Game), Haikyuu!!
Genre: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, In Which I Kill Everything, Language, M/M, Psychological Trauma, attempted suicide, like no this is not a joke there is death of haikyuu boys in this fic, oh yes i did really go there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 06:48:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2498540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wherefore_art_thou_Homeo/pseuds/Homeo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(at this point..... if you love me you won't read this fic lskdjf - Homeo 2016)</p><p>Ever wondered how the Haikyuu boys would handle Tenshin Elementary School? I hadn't either. But here we are.</p><p>Hinata finds the Sachiko Ever After charm online. Being the sentimental little guy that he is, he suggests that everybody on his first-ever real-life volleyball team do it together after practice one day.</p><p>As you can imagine, it all goes to hell from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. [Introduction] We Beg Of You

**Author's Note:**

> This was my sister's idea. Please hold her accountable for everything that happens in this story. I didn't even think most of this up. I'm just writing it and stringing it together.
> 
> You don't really need to know anything about Corpse Party for this one!
> 
> For those reading who do know the story of Corpse Party (Repeated Fear/Blood Covered), I'll be skipping the more plot-driven aspects. All that will remain is sadness and death. Have a good time. You're at an advantage here. You may begin to see patterns...
> 
> The rest of you well haha I hope you like it when everything you care about dies

It was Hinata's idea: of course it was. Who else would suggest something like it?

He brought it up after practice one day, while they were all cleaning up. Ukai and Takeda had already left for the night; practice had gone later than expected, and both teachers were tired. The team had volunteered to stay after and clean up, and so Ukai had left the keys in Daichi's care.

It wasn't difficult work, with all twelve of them. They were nearly done mere minutes after they started.

Realizing he didn't have much time before the team began to leave, Hinata stepped out onto the court, holding the paper in one hand. He held still; he was a little nervous. Would they think this was stupid?

His sudden calm alone got the attention of Noya, who immediately demanded to know what was up, and then everyone was looking at the little orange-haired boy.

Hinata didn't explain himself immediately - instead, he held up the thing he'd been holding behind his back. It was a white paper doll, with no features apart from a head and boxy limbs. The team stared at it, nonplussed.

"I," he began, but stopped. "This... this is a charm."

They all squinted at him. He felt his ears turn red.  _This was a stupid idea._ He could feel Tsukishima's incredulous leer on the side of his head, could just barely hear Yamaguchi snickering beside him.

"It's. It's like - kind of a promise," he forged ahead, although his face turned redder with every word. "I found it in a book I was reading. You do the charm with people you want to be friends with forever, and, I, um... I thought, with the third years leaving soon, and all the playing we're going to be doing, we won't have time for it, so..."

"Did you want to do the charm with the team, Hinata?" Suga asked, smiling widely.

"Y-yeah," Hinata nodded vigorously, grateful. "I... You guys are the first real team I've ever had. And... I. I just wanted to..."

He felt himself deflating a little. "It's a stupid idea," he mumbled, kicking at the ground. "Never mind."

"No, no," Suga insisted, stepping forward and placing his hands on Hinata's shoulders.

Hinata looked up at him, and found a comforting smile.

"If you want us to do this charm with you," Suga said, "we will. Right?"

He turned to look around at the rest of the team. Ennoshita, Narita, and Kinoshita nodded agreeably; Tanaka and Noya exclaimed "Sure!" in unison; Daichi and Asahi smiled; Tsukishima adjusted his glasses, and Yamaguchi watched him out of the corner of his eye as he nodded too; Kageyama did absolutely nothing.

Hinata found himself smiling a little, reassured by this response. Nobody he'd expected to say yes hadn't.

"Excellent," Suga chirped. "Tell us how to do it, Hinata."

"Oh - okay, um," Hinata began, looking down at the little paper doll he held in both hands. "Well... We just all gather around this paper doll, and each of us holds on to it. We say this spell - it goes, um, 'Sachiko, we beg of you' - we say it... Once for each of us, so, twelve times. Then we tear the doll apart, and we hang on to our piece and keep it, and then we'll be teammates forever."

Daichi nodded. "Sounds pretty painless," he said, and gestured for everybody to gather around. "C'mon - Tsukishima, it'll take thirty seconds. Get your ass over here."

The team huddled up, much the same way they did at the end of practice and before every game. Once they'd arranged themselves so that everybody could see the doll - save for Tsukishima, who still stood a little ways away - Hinata began to explain again.

"Okay... Everybody grab hold of the doll. It doesn't matter how much of it you get - just make sure you'll get a little piece when we tear it. There's a lot of us, so nobody's going to get much."

He held out the doll and everyone reached out and grabbed part of it. Hinata held on to a place just below the doll's left armpit, close to where its heart would be if it had one. Eleven hands were in the center.

Yamaguchi sighed and turned his head to call to the one holdout. "Tsukki! Join us!"

"Come on, Tsukishima," Suga put in. "It's just fun."

"...If it'll make you all shut up," Tsukishima finally grunted, edging into the circle beside Yamaguchi and taking hold of the doll. "It's covered in sweat," he observed.

"Shut up," Hinata mumbled.

"The rhyme," Daichi prompted him after a moment's silence.

"Right." Hinata shook his head to clear it. "It's. Um. SAH-chee-koh. 'Sachiko, we beg of you'. Twelve times. Um. Try saying it a few times before we start so you don't mess it up."

"What happens if we screw it up?" asked Narita.

Hinata shrugged. "Nothing. I don't know. I don't think it's a big deal."

The muttered phrase echoed around the circle a few times. Hinata couldn't help grinning as he listened. They were going to do this. It felt childish to think about it that way, but... they were going to be his teammates forever, no matter what. They were going to be friends for the rest of their lives.

Once they'd all said it a few times over and nobody made any mistakes, Hinata spoke again. "Ready?" he asked, enthusiastic now.

Everybody nodded.

"Okay," he breathed. "Now. Everyone at the same time. One... Two... Three!"

"Sachiko, we beg of you," rang twelve voices, rebounding over and over as they met the walls of the gym. It was quite a bit quieter than any game Hinata had ever been to, but somehow it all seemed just as loud, just as important.

He looked around at the team as they all continued the chant. Six smiling faces, two faces positively  _beaming_ , the bearded one looking nervous, and two yielding no expression whatsoever.

_His team._

Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve!

"Now!" Hinata exclaimed, unable to control his excitement.

They all dug in their fingernails and ripped off a piece of the paper doll. The tearing sound was loudest of all.

They stood there for a moment, oddly breathless.

"...Can I leave now?" Tsukishima muttered, eyeing his piece of paper.

"Yes," Daichi said curtly, and the circle broke apart.

"Good practice, everyone!" Suga called. "See you next time, be safe getting home, and - "

 

Suga stopped, and quirked one eyebrow up - and they all knew why. Nobody had missed the strange tremor that had just passed through the floor.

"...Is it an earthquake?" Daichi wondered out loud. "Everyone - hey, take cover!"

"Where are we supposed to 'take cover' in here?" Tanaka demanded. "There's nothing here!"

The ground began to actually shake, rattling the fluorescent lights up on the ceiling. Several of the boys eyed them warily; they could easily come crashing down on their heads. They found it increasingly harder and harder to keep their balance.

The shaking crescendoed to the point that nobody could even stand anymore. Where before there had been a feeling of slight concern there was now a real, nearly tangible terror.

Hinata crashed down to the floor back-first, near Kageyama - and then Noya landed across his legs. The world was being jostled like a giant's snowglobe - it couldn't be possible. He was practically getting thrown  _off_ the floor.

"What the fuck is this?" Noya exclaimed.

Then, somehow very slowly, there came a jarring, earth-splitting  _crack._

Time seemed to halt as Hinata managed to push himself up to a sitting position.

Just barely, over the top of Noya's spiky-haired head, he could see something on - no, _in -_  the court. Something that very much should not have been there.

A hole. A chasm, really - a split in the floor, through to the ground below it, so deep that Hinata couldn't see the bottom.

He couldn't even process it. 

More cracks spiderwebbed out from the first, as though it were ice on a pond, and his teammates began to slide into them, as frantically as they tried to scramble away. Paralyzed, eyes and mouth wide, he watched them fall.

"Hinata! Dumbass! Don't just sit there - "

But all at once, the entire floor was crumbled away, and they were all falling.

Hinata's mind was completely devoid of thought - he could only cling tight to his scrap of the paper doll as everything, _everything,_ went black.


	2. Holes in the Floor

It felt like forever later that Hinata was finally able to open his eyes, and when he did, he had no idea where he was.  
He lay there for a moment, just trying to remember what had happened. He had a vague memory of being at school, at practice... The floor had fallen in? No, no... that couldn't be right...  
It was so dark here. It smelled like dust, like dirt, and like something else - something he had no name for; something that made his stomach turn.  
There were grayish, weathered floorboards underneath him. He couldn't see more than a few feet away in the gloom.  
He'd fallen, he now remembered hazily. He'd fallen through the floor. It was impossible, but it had happened. Could he have fallen through into the crack on a piece of the court? No... This wasn't what the gym floor looked like. It was too old...  
He very much was not at Karasuno anymore.  
Fear stuck, icy-cold, into his chest. Shakily, he pushed himself up to hands and knees and began to look around.  
As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he began to see that he was surrounded by desks and chairs, made of old, dark wood. They were piled up on top of each other, in the middle of the room, like for spring cleaning. He could barely see a wall and windows across the room from himself. There were dark spaces in the floor, mere inches from where he'd been lying - they were holes, he soon realized. Several of the desks and chairs hung precariously over the edges, as though glued there.  
Hinata's pulse was already racing when he stood up. Spots blinked before his eyes and he staggered around a bit. His mouth was very dry.  
His hands were shaking, hard. He clenched his fists.  
Somehow, the worst part of this wasn't the fact that he didn't know where he was.  
It was the fact that he was alone that terrified him.  
His teammates had all been right there with him when the floor had collapsed. Kageyama had been yelling in his ear. Noya had been on top of him.  
Now... where were they?  
His breath caught in his chest and his eyes filled with tears. For a long moment, he fought against crying with his hands over his eyes.  
 _Come on, dumbass. Crying won't help. Get ahold of yourself._  
He couldn't do anything if all he could do was cry. He had to do something. He had to find the rest of the team, and then everything would be okay. They could worry about where they were later...  
Carefully, he edged toward one of the holes in the floor and looked down. He didn't want to get too close; he felt like that darkness would pull him in.  
He couldn't see the bottom. He tried not to think about the possibility of one of them falling in...  
Should he call out? This didn't seem like the kind of place where he should yell... He realized it reminded him of a schoolroom - but nothing like high school; the desks were too small. It was an old, old place, but still he felt like he shouldn't raise his voice, shouldn't run, shouldn't step out of line...  
He shook his head vigorously to clear it, and licked his lips.  
"Suga?" he croaked. "Daichi?"  
There was no reply. He hadn't really expected one, he realized. It was far too quiet fro the room around him to contain anybody else. His words were swallowed up by the humming silence.  
Hinata swallowed with extreme difficulty. His stomach gurgled.  
 _Calm down, calm down_ , he repeated to himself. _You just have to find everybody, and not panic... Maybe you all just got separated when you fell. Yeah! Yeah. It's not a big deal. You'll find everybody and then we can decide what to -_  
A shuffling noise, closely followed by a groan, nearly scared Hinata out of his skin.  
It came from off to his left - but he couldn't see far enough, not yet.  
"H-hey," he called out, his voice little more than a squeak. "Who's there?"  
The rustling continued, and then came a cough. Hinata knew that cough.  
"...Kageyama?" he wavered, stepping towards the sounds - he couldn't get too close; they came from the other side of the wall of desks. "Kageyama, is that you?"  
"Hinata?" came the muddled reply. "Yeah, it's me. Where... what's...?"  
"I don't know," Hinata said, rubbing away more tears, relief filling him up. "We were just standing there, and the floor fell in..."  
"So that did happen," Kageyama mumbled. "What the hell - ow!"  
"What's wrong?" Hinata called out in alarm, his voice rising. "Are you okay?"  
"...I'm fine," Kageyama replied, sounding disgruntled. "I just hurt my arm. No big deal. Just a little cut."  
"How do I get over to you?" Hinata asked. "Do you see any way?"  
"Move the desks, dumbass," Kageyama growled.  
"Oh... oh, yeah," HInata's face flushed. Of course. Idiot.  
He approached the desk nearest to him and pulled, hard - but it didn't budge. He held tight and leaned back, putting all his weight into it.  
"It won't move!" he called.  
"Is it caught on something?"  
Hinata checked quickly, and then shook his head. "Uh-uh," he replied. "It's like it's glued to the floor. I can't move it."  
Kageyama was quiet for a moment. Then, "There's a door here. Is there one on your side?"  
Hinata squinted at the opposite wall. "Yeah," he said.  
"All right. We can meet up in the hallway and - "  
"No!" Hinata cut him off. He was thankful that Kageyama couldn't see his face - it had to be deep red by now.  
"...What?"  
"You hurt your arm," Hinata elaborated, staring at the floor. "If you're hurt, you need to stay put."  
"It's not keeping me from walking - "  
But Hinata was already turning on his heel. He ran towards the door, leaping high over the holes in the floorboards.  
He was probably being stupid - again - but if Kageyama was hurt at all, Hinata wanted him to take it easy as much as he could.  
He didn't want him hurt...  
He shook his head again. _Come on. Everything's going to be okay._  
He slowed down again once he got to the hallway - it was somehow even darker, and even quieter, out there. Hinata knew that Kageyama was in the room he'd just left - there and relatively safe - but he still felt so scared, out here alone. All his hair stood on end and a shiver ran down his spine. He wanted to sprint down the hallway, but the minute he tried to speed up, his foot found the edge of another hole in the floor. He let out an involuntary squeak of terror and carefully felt for the opposite edge. His eyes adjusted and he edged around it, feeling for the wall the whole way in case he missed the door.  
It took forever to get to it, but he did. He could dimly see Kageyama's outline, and called out.  
"Kageyama?"  
"You're there?"  
"Yeah. Are you okay?"  
"I'm okay. Shut up."  
Hinata carefully edged around the holes in the floor and knelt beside him. He immediately touched his shoulder to make sure he was really there.  
"Where... are we, anyway?" Hinata breathed.  
"Well... I can't see out the windows," Kageyama replied, quietly. "Really, it looks like we're... underground."  
"So... The floor..."  
"...It looks like we really did fall through the floor, yeah," Kageyama finished. "And there's... a building down here. Underground. That's why it's so dark... It looks like an elementary school room... The desks are tiny..."  
"We did the charm..." Hinata's heart sank. "We did the charm, and then... Did this... Did I...?"  
"That's stupid," Kageyama snapped, glowering at him. "It's not your fault this happened. There's no _way_ you could have seen this coming."  
"But... It was the charm that did it, wasn't it?"  
"It does look that way. It's crazy, but... I can't think of anything else that could have caused this."  
Hinata pressed his lips together and tried to breathe. He hugged his knees and rocked back and forth.  
"...But it doesn't matter how we got here," Kageyama went on. "All that matters is that we need to get out of here. And we'll do that. Hear me?"  
Hinata nodded, and blinked away tears - he didn't know how they'd gotten there. He shook his nerves away and took hold of Kageyama's shoulder. "Let me see your arm," he said.  
"It's fine," Kageyama grumbled.  
"Let me see it."  
Finally, reluctantly, Kageyama extended his left arm. Hinata rolled up the sleeve of his jacket and squinted down at the skin.  
There was a long cut on top of his forearm, and it was all sticky and dark with blood. Hinata gasped involuntarily. "Fine!" he cried. "You're bleeding everywhere!"  
"I'm not bleeding," he replied, calm. "It stopped bleeding. It's okay. Calm down, dumbass."  
Kageyama took his arm from Hinata's hands. "Breathe, idiot," he grumbled.  
Hinata did - he hadn't realized he'd stopped. Suddenly wobbly, he let himself fall forward, his head landing on Kageyama's shoulder. The black-haired boy tensed a little, but then relaxed, sighing sharply. He reached one hand around to Hinata's back and patted him a few times. He was all shaky - he couldn't hold still.  
"We need to go find everybody else," he said after a moment. "You need a minute?"  
"No," Hinata replied, shaking his head. "We need to go."  
Kageyama nodded and helped him to stand. It took him a few moments to get his balance - Kageyama steadied him with one hand on his upper arm, watching him carefully.  
"Okay," Hinata said, and pressed his lips together. He took a step. As soon as he lifted his foot, he found himself falling. Kageyama caught him.  
"S-sorry," he stammered, his face a little warm. "I don't know why I... my legs are all shivery..."  
"You're scared," Kageyama said. "It makes sense. You're always super clumsy anyway."  
Hinata frowned and shrugged him off. This time, he managed to make it to the doorway before he had to stop. He leaned on the doorframe, his heart pounding, while Kageyama caught up with him. They stood there for a moment while Hinata caught his breath.  
Kageyama moved out of the corner of Hinata's eye. He glanced over and found that Kageyama was holding out his right arm towards him. HInata blinked at him, nonplussed.  
"You can hang on," Kageyama grumbled, looking determinedly away from Hinata. "If you want."  
Hinata was glad he wasn't looking, and that it was dark - his face was all red again. "I don't need help walking," he muttered. "I can walk..."  
"Okay."  
Kageyama stepped out of the room and began leading the way down the hall, a purposeful spring in his step. Hinata watched him go, still leaning on the doorframe.  
He twisted his mouth.  
Abruptly, he pushed off from the wall and hurried after him, grabbing his arm when he got close enough and clinging on tight.  
"And now you can't walk?"  
"...No," Hinata muttered back, his face so red it had to be glowing.  
Kageyama was a friend - a teammate. There wasn't anything between them... nothing aside from getting along.  
But here, here in the dark, in this weird, scary place... he felt safe hanging on his arm. He felt like with Kageyama there, he would be okay - they would both be okay.  
 _Invincible,_ he thought to himself. _We'll be invincible._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> literally called 'holes in the floor' because that is probably the most commonly-used phrase in this chapter jeebus
> 
> (yes Hinata's inner dialogue sounds like Kageyama shut up)  
> (yesithrewintheinvinciblelineyesididthatleavemealone)
> 
> All right! So this one was a week after the last. I don't think I'll be able to keep updates this frequent - particularly because I'm going to be attempting - keyword 'attempting' - NaNoWriMo in November, and that is really going to backseat just about everything else. I might occasionally post updates regarding my progress on my Tumblr (i-homeostasis), but I'll probably forget. Oh well. If/when I post such updates, they'll be tagged as 'tfl updates', for those of you who wish to utilize my blog solely for the purpose of keeping up with this story.
> 
> It will continue, though - don't worry!
> 
> I'm sorry not much happened in this chapter... It was basically 1900 words of nothing. Yeah - this one is going to start off slow, a lot like the game itself, and then it's going to abruptly get going really fast and not stop until it hits a wall.
> 
> Very hard.
> 
> Hee hee. Splat.
> 
> One other thing - I don't know why (I'm still super new to AO3 - I don't even know what most of the buttons do), but when I copy/pasted this from Notepad, the formatting got all screwed up. I did my best to find all the weird paragraph breaks and fix them, but I might have missed a few - sorry if that's the case!
> 
> I also want to say THANK YOU for all the positive responses! I never expected to get into triple-digit hits, and here I am only a week after the first chapter! I'm glad to see people are excited... This is my first fic, and it feels great to be getting so much positivity. :D
> 
> Granted you'll all probably hate me later for what I'm going to do to these boys but hey might as well acknowledge it while it's here.
> 
> Each group - there's four of them - will get their own chapters. For those of you who quickly did the math and took a gander at the tags on this story, it's probably fairly obvious that I've separated them in ships and then thrown Tanaka in with one of them (Daichi and Suga). I'm sorry. I just really don't know much about Ennoshita, Nikara, and Kinoshita (I'm only on chapter 30 of the manga at the moment, and wow holy god damn I haven't even finished the anime). A quick glance at the Haikyuu wiki tells me there isn't actually a hell of a lot to know about the last two, though, so I hope you're not disappointed...
> 
> I'm gonna stop now. See you when I see you! Thanks again! :D


	3. Awake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (flails at 'chapter title' box for thirty minutes after finishing the actual writing)
> 
> Hey there! It's been a little bit, hasn't it?
> 
> Okay - so this chapter is essentially the same as the last one, but to the tune of the other three ships. It's the 'waking up' chapter for all of them. Originally, they were each going to be their own individual chapter, divvied up by ships like all the rest of the chapters are going to be. I realized, though, that as they're all basically the same thing, just with different people - and they're pretty short, too - I shouldn't make you guys wait for too long. Thus, all the points of view of this particular segment are going into one big long chapter - nearly as long as the entirety of the rest of the fic, I believe. The rest of the chapters - there will be nine more! - will be one POV apiece. With luck the breaks between them won't be too long.
> 
> In case you're only interested in one particular ship, here's the order that their chapters will be in. I'll try to remember to label them in the chapter names, too.  
> \- Kageyama/Hinata  
> \- Sawamura/Sugawara  
> \- Tsukishima/Yamaguchi  
> \- Azumane/Nishinoya
> 
> ...Plus one extra chapter from to wrap everything up. 
> 
> Also changed my tumblr url during the break... now I'm i-homeostasis. Thought I'd mention this in case it was relevant to anybody. The update tag is still 'tfl updates'.
> 
> Without further ado, here we go.

“Daichi. _Daichi._ ”

Somebody was shaking his shoulders. The voice was trying to stay calm, but failing a bit – it was Suga.

Daichi opened his eyes and sat up. Suga didn't let go of him. His brown eyes were wide and his mouth was tense.

“Suga,” he said. “Did the power go out? Where is everybody? Is anyone hurt?”

“Uh...” Suga faltered, eyes flicking from side to side. “I... don't think we're even at Karasuno anymore.”

“...What?”

“I mean... look around,” Suga shrugged, gesturing at the dark room around them. “This isn't the gym. We fell through the floor, but we're in a room still – and there's no rooms underneath the gym, especially not one that looks like this.”

Daichi sniffed the air. “...It stinks in here.”

“There's desks over there,” Suga went on. “They're barely taller than my knee. It looks like...”

“...an elementary school.”

“...An elementary school that smells like death,” Suga agreed.

Daichi's mouth was very dry. 

He noticed that Suga's hands were shaking. He reached up to take hold of them, and ran his thumb over Suga's knuckles. After a few seconds, Suga met his eyes. He looked scared. His hands were clammy.

“We need to find the others,” Daichi said firmly. “That's top priority.”

“Yeah,” Suga nodded, gripping his hands tighter.

“We'll get everybody together, and we'll find a way out of here.

“It's going to be okay.”

Suga closed his eyes and nodded again. “Are you hurt?” he asked, with a brave attempt at a steady, reassuring voice.

Daichi leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “I'm fine. Don't worry.”

Suga leaned his head on Daichi's shoulder. “Okay,” he breathed. “Okay.”

“Take a minute,” Daichi murmured. “Then we'll get going.”

Suga didn't rest for long. It definitely wasn't really long enough. He took a few deep breaths, holding on tight, and then pulled away. Daichi ducked his head to look into his eyes again.

“All right?”

“Yeah,” Suga smiled. He stood up and pulled Daichi along with him. “I'm okay.”

Daichi wrapped an arm around his shoulders and planted another kiss on his brow.

“I'm okay,” Suga repeated.

Daichi took his hands and squeezed. Suga smiled shyly and they made their way over to the door.

Before they'd reached the hall, they heard footsteps hurrying towards them – and shortly behind them, a voice, calling out, over and over – a high, panicked series of shouts.

“Is anybody here?” the voice demanded. “Anybody!?”

“That's Tanaka,” Daichi realized. Leaning out, he called, “Tanaka! In here!”

Tanaka swore loudly and the footsteps stopped.

“Daichi,” he called back. “That's you, right?”

“Yeah,” Daichi said. “Suga too.”

“Hello,” Suga put in.

“Where the hell are we?” Tanaka asked, walking into their line of sight. He was pale... and wide-eyed, and  _afraid_ . Daichi had never seen him like this, and it had never crossed his mind that he might. Tanaka wasn't an easy person to topple, but he seemed already to be right at that brink...

“No idea,” Daichi answered him. “I just woke up...”

“I've been running around for... jeez, a good hour, at least,” Tanaka said breathlessly, leaning over and resting his hands on his knees. “There's... there's shit in here that...”

He straightened up after a few moments. He looked absolutely sick.

Daichi clapped his free hand on Tanaka's shoulder. 

“What did you see?” he asked, keeping his voice as steady as possible.

Tanaka leaned against the doorway and closed his eyes.

“I had to have been imagining things,” he muttered. “The guy... he was just sleeping, right? He had to have been sleeping... Oh, god, I'm gonna throw up...”

Suga's hand tightened around Daichi's. Daichi's heart stopped.

“...What are you talking about, Tanaka?” he croaked. “What did you see?”

Tanaka covered his mouth with both hands and took a few deep, shuddering breaths. Suga moved forward, freeing his hand to brace Tanaka's shoulders.

This was  _bad._ Daichi felt ice run down his spine as Tanaka opened his eyes again.

“I think...” Tanaka wavered,  _shaking_ now, “...I think I just saw a dead guy...”

A long, harsh silence fell over the three of them. Only Tanaka moved, once again closing his eyes, chest heaving even harder than before. The air seemed to grow stagnant and icy cold. It was hard to breathe.

“...What?” Suga and Daichi asked together.

Tanaka's knees wobbled and gave out. Suga held him up.

“He's just... He's lying back there a ways...” Tanaka went on. “He's a little guy, with dark hair... God, for a bit I thought he was Yuu...

“...There's blood everywhere...

“...I didn't hear breathing...”

“That's enough,” Daichi interrupted. “Tanaka.”

Tanaka gritted his teeth tight together and nodded. Suga helped him sit down on the floor, and then looked over his shoulder, up at Daichi.

Suga's eyes were terrified, but the rest of his face was completely blank. Daichi fought to keep his expression neutral. Everybody else was scared enough; somebody had to stay steady...

Tanaka covered his face again, and after a few more breaths, seemed to calm down slightly. Suga helped him, speaking gently, telling him everything would be fine; they'd find Nishinoya, they'd find Hinata, they'd find everybody, and they'd get out of this place.

Tanaka nodded and said 'okay' to everything, but he looked too far gone to really believe any of it.

“We'll get going whenever you're ready,” Suga said, rubbing Tanaka's shoulders. “Take your time.”

“We don't  _have_ time,” Tanaka shot back, and began struggling to get to his feet. “If people are  _dying_ in here...”

“You need to rest – ”

“To hell with that. There's probably somebody on the team who's in worse shape than I am.”

“...We should get going,” Daichi decided. “Tanaka's wright. We may not have a lot of time to waste. We need to get everybody together, and find a way out.”

Tanaka covered his face again, and drew his hands away slowly. “I really, really hope Hinata's with somebody,” he said. “That poor kid...”

“Even if he's not right now, he will be soon,” Daichi stated. “We're gonna find everyone.”

Suga nodded firmly – Daichi was pleased to see there was light back in his eyes. It wasn't anything like one of Daichi's pre-game talks, but if he could just get these two moving again, even a little optimistically, it could be just as good.

Tanaka raised his head. He looked a little off at first, but then he smiled – one of those fired-up, toothy grins. There wasn't the usual amount of heart in it, but it would have to do for now.

Suga helped him stand, and they both looked to Daichi.

“Okay,” the captain said. “Let's go.”

 

\- - - 

 

Tsukishima awoke to the quiet sound of sobbing from nearby. He frowned, and then groaned; his head hurt – he felt like he'd been kicked in the back of his skull. He didn't feel able to open his eyes, but eventually he managed it.

“Tsukki?” Yamaguchi's breathless, wavering voice demanded from above. “Tsukki, are you okay?”

“...Well, I'm alive,” Tsukishima grumbled, sitting up, rubbing his head – his fingers came away bloody. He closed the hand quickly.

Yamaguchi was kneeling beside him. His freckled face faded gradually into view. His cheeks were red, and wet with tears. He hastily attempted to scrub these away, but they kept coming.

“...I thought you were dead,” he choked, sounding completely pitiful. “You weren't moving... and I couldn't wake you up...”

“I'm awake  _now_ ,” Tsukishima said, taken slightly aback. “Calm down.”

Yamaguchi sniffled.

“...Where are we, anyway?” Tsukishima asked, looking around with aching eyes.

“I don't know,” Yamaguchi replied. He shook his head and covered his eyes with his hands. “ _I don't know._ ”

He was panicking. It wasn't that hard to see.

Tsukishima sighed and got to his feet as steadily as he could. Once Yamaguchi had collected himself a bit, he looked up at him.

Tsukishima extended his non-bloodied hand. “Get up,” he said. “We need to find out where we are. Then we'll figure out how to leave.”

Yamaguchi nodded and took his hand, standing up and letting go as quickly as possible. Tsukishima watched him out of the corner of his eye. The freckle-faced boy was staring hard at the ground, and his hands were clasped behind his back. Calmer. Or at least hiding everything better.

Tsukishima turned his attention to the room they were standing in. It wasn't part of Karasuno; that much, at least, was certain. It was a school, though, obviously, and judging by the size of the desks teetering over the holes in the floor, it was an elementary school.

As for how they'd gotten there... well, it wasn't relevant. They just had to find a way out.

“All right,” Tsukishima said, and started for the door. “Let's head out.”

“Wait up, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi called, hurrying after him.

Tsukishima couldn't bring himself to slow down. If he slowed down, he'd stop. If he stopped, he'd never get going again.

If he never got going again, what would end up happening to Yamaguchi...?

He didn't have to worry about that. He shook his head a few times.

“This place is creepy...” Yamaguchi shivered. “You think it's haunted?”

“Don't be stupid,” Tsukishima mumbled.

“...Yeah, I guess. But you wouldn't be scared even if it was, huh, Tsukki?”

“Of course not.”

Yamaguchi gave a nervous giggle. “You just don't  _get_ scared, huh?”

Tsukishima made a non-committal noise and side-eyed him again. He was smiling, way too big. His eyes were perversely alight. 

He'd skipped straight from panic to hysterics. Great. 

“Would you  _breathe,_ or  _blink_ , or something?” Tsukishima snapped. “You're freaking me out.”

Yamaguchi took a deep breath and laughed as he let it out. Not a natural laugh... it was a high-pitched, shrieking thing, and it shook Tsukishima right down to the bones.

Well, this would be interesting.

A loud clattering noise sounded from behind them. Startled, Yamaguchi yelped and jumped to one side, grabbing unintentionally for Tsukishima's hand...

His fingers were ice. Tsukishima looked down at the corpse-like hand now locked on his own. He frowned.

“...S-sorry, Tsukki...” Yamaguchi mumbled. “I... I was just...”

He started to pull away.

Tsukishima held on.

Yamaguchi paused. “...Tsukki?”

Tsukishima looked away. He had to be imagining the warmth now rushing to his face.

“If you're scared,” he said, looking desperately  _anywhere_ but in Yamaguchi's direction, “You might as well hang on.

“...If that'll help you at all.”

Yamaguchi's fingers tightened a little.

“...Thank you, Tsukki,” he said, in a much calmer voice. He took another, slower breath, and let it back out over the course of ten seconds. “...I'm better now.”

Tsukishima nodded once and started walking again, perhaps a little more purposefully than before.

Definitely, this would be easier if Yamaguchi kept calm...

 

\- - -

 

When Noya woke up, his head was hurting. That was the first thing he noticed, before he even opened his eyes. When he did, after a few seconds of confused, irritated muttering, he found that it was very, very dark in here.

“Hey,” he called out. “Everybody okay?”

There wasn't any reply. He frowned and sat up, looking around, and – 

He paused, and sniffed the air. It didn't smell the same in here...

It was  _way_ too quiet.

“...Ryu?” he called out. “Shouyo?”

_Nothing._

Baffled, Noya squinted into the dark.

“...Asahi?”

He stood up, blinked a little to let his eyes adjust, and became a little more confused with every passing second.

The gym didn't even look the same anymore. It seemed to have... gotten smaller...? 

The ceiling was lower. He supposed that could have been because of the quake, but... no, no, this wasn't even the same room. There were desks everywhere. What the hell was this. What the fuck.

“What's going on?” he demanded of the unfamiliar air. “What the hell?”

Where was everybody?

Where was  _he?_

Deciding that the only way to figure this out was to walk around, Noya set out. Almost immediately, he tripped over a hole in the floor.

“ _Shit_ ,” he hissed, stumbling forward. He only barely managed to catch himself on one of the little desks.  _Damn,_ he was dizzy.

He braced himself for a little bit, breathing, trying to get his bearings.

“Okay.”

He stood up and walked out the door.

The hallway he found himself in stretched into darkness in both directions. He turned left and hurried along, calling out for his friends – all of them, any of them,  _somebody._ He never received a reply.

A few more aimless turns and he forced himself to stop and think. His heart was thudding in his ears; without meaning to, he'd broken into a run at some point.

_Slow down. Think._

This place was scary. He liked to think that his teammates could handle themselves in here, but...

Asahi and Shouyo weighed heavily on his mind. The younger boy would probably be scared as all hell.

Asahi had to be panicking.

This thought set him moving again, faster than before. That giant idiot... he'd be scared out of his mind, wouldn't he?

“Hey!” Noya called out. “Asahi? Anybody? Anybody out there?”

He shivered. There was something  _wrong_ with this place.

He turned another corner and something caught his eye at the other end of the hall – but it wasn't anything  _good_ , he could tell right away. The shout he'd been about to give died immediately.

It was a weird, pale blue light, down there at the end of the hall. He wasn't even really sure if he actually saw it; he blinked and it was gone.

All the same, a fresh cold rush of terror swept over him.

He had to find his team. Now, though, he was thinking that it was probably a bad idea to call out. He didn't know exactly why... he just had a very,  _very_ bad feeling about this place.

Noya set about running through the halls as fast as he could. He realized somewhere along the line that it probably wasn't likely that he would have landed especially far from anybody else, and tried to backtrack, but he got lost fast.

He found himself getting frustrated.

“Asahi!” he bellowed. “Ryu! Shouyo! Daichi! Suga!...”

He went through all the names again – and when he ran out, he stopped suddenly and kicked the wall, rattling the glass in the windows.

He shouldn't be so angry. That was stupid. He needed to calm down...

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it go slowly, and then he turned back to look around.

There was a giant gap in the floor, just in front of him. Two hallways intersected here, and the entirety of the actual intersection had collapsed. He couldn't see the bottom. 

He hadn't noticed it before. If he hadn't stopped to kick the wall, he might have run right into it...

Shivering again, he turned and began to backtrack down the hall again.

He was halfway down it when he heard a quiet shuffling noise behind him – and a voice calling his name.

“...Noya?”

He whipped around so fast he almost fell over. He ran back to the gap, hardly daring to believe it,  _oh, please..._

“Asahi!” Noya cried, skidding to a stop, squinting through the gloom. “Is that you?”

He could see him now, standing on the opposite side of the giant hole in the floor. He looked pale – he was probably shaky as all hell – and he seemed to be favoring his left leg...

“Noya,” Asahi said again, trying to smile. He didn't fool Noya for a second.

“Your leg's hurt,” he said sharply, pointing at it.

“N-no,” Asahi stammered, shaking his head. “No – I'm okay...”

“Quit lying,” Noya interrupted. “You stay there. I'll be right over there, okay?”

“Where are we?” Asahi wavered. “What's going on?”

_He's freaking out. Calm him down._

“...I don't know,” Noya said, reluctantly. “We'll be okay, though. Okay? I promise.”

“...Okay,” Asahi nodded.

“Sit down there, okay?” Noya ordered. “Rest a little. I'll be over there in just a minute. Then we'll find a place to fix your leg.”

“My leg's fine – ”

“ _Shut up,_ ” Noya snapped, turning on his heel and starting down the hall again, as fast as he could go.

It took him longer than he wanted to find a way around. Or maybe it just seemed that way. Maybe it just seemed that way because Asahi was hurt and the longer Noya wasn't there, the longer he'd have to hurt.

Noya shook his head to clear it. Everything was going to be fine.

He'd never admit it, but he was scared too. He couldn't stop thinking about that blue light he'd seen earlier. He didn't want to leave Asahi alone with that thing floating around...

Finally,  _finally_ , he tore around the right corner – and almost slammed straight into Asahi, who was, infuriatingly,  _not_ sitting down. He'd even wandered away from where Noya had left him.

“Why are you up?” Noya demanded.

He instantly regretted raising his voice. Asahi shrank back a little, mumbling half-formed reasons.

Noya shook his head and threw his arms around him. “Never mind,” he said quietly. “It doesn't matter. You're okay?”

“...Y-yeah,” Asahi managed, and hugged him back.

They stayed like that for a little bit, glad for the warmth – it was pretty cold in here.

Noya patted him on the back a few times and pulled away, grinning. He took hold of the taller boy's hands.

“There's gotta be a nurse's office in here somewhere, right?” Noya said. “We'll get you a place to lie down for a little, and then we'll go find the rest of the team.”

“So... you don't know how we got... wherever this is... You don't know either?” Asahi's voice wavered. He looked at Noya with  _scared_ eyes.

_Fix that, Noya._

“Nuh-uh. But we'll worry about that later. Let's get going, okay?”

Asahi nodded, lips pressed tight together. Noya let go of one of his hands and they began to walk forward. He hadn't imagined it; Asahi was definitely favoring his left side...

“You can lean on me if you need,” Noya informed him.

“I... I don't think that would even work.”

“I think it would.”

Asahi looked down at him doubtfully. Noya smacked him on the back and grinned.

“Don't look at me like that,” he said jovially, taking his hand again and squeezing his fingers. “Let's go.”

Asahi's hand was cold and sweaty. Just like they always were when he was nervous. Noya didn't blame him; this place really was creepy as all hell. Even without that weird light from before, the atmosphere in here was just  _off_ .

Noya could handle it, thought. All he had to do was smile, and keep smiling.

That was the best way he could think of to keep Asahi from freaking out, after all.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what's funny? I ship Tsukishima/Yamaguchi least of the four ships in this fic, but for some reason, it's the most fun for me to write.
> 
> More things start happening in the next one. There's actual death, doom, destruction in the next one. Poor lil sunshine baby.
> 
> See you guys before the year is out, most likely! If not, then soon after. Thanks again for all the positivity! :D


	4. Even Kings Get Scared [KageHina]

Hinata held tight to Kageyama's arm as they advanced down the hallway. It really was creepy in here, and cold... He hadn't thought to change back into his street clothes after practice was over, he'd been so nervous about the charm, and his uniform and sweatpants weren't doing much to keep him warm. He envied Kageyama's hoodie.

He stuck as close as he could to the taller boy. It made him feel safer.

He wondered where the rest of the team was. Maybe they should try calling for them, as they had no idea where anybody was.

“Suga?” he tried – and Kageyama practically jumped out of his skin.

“Jeez – _warn_ me before you do that,” he growled.

“Sorry,” Hinata whispered, turning his eyes to the floor.

Kageyama shook his head. “Dumbass,” he muttered.

“I said I was sorry.”

“Stop talking.”

Hinata scowled up at him, and found him looking straight ahead, frowning like always. “All right, if we shouldn't call out, what do you think we should do?”

“Well, I don't know,” Kageyama shot back, without looking at him. “I just don't think it's the best idea to run around this place yelling.”

“Quit yelling at me, then.”

“No.”

They glowered at each other for a little while, and then looked away.

Hinata felt his face go a little bit red.

They hadn't been walking in silence long when a very, very loud sound split the air. Hinata reacted before he even really knew what was happening. The scream echoing down the hallway was a physical being. It moved him out of its way, flung him aside like a feather.

He probably yelled too. Without thinking, he gripped Kageyama's arm even tighter.

The scream didn't last long. The silence rang loudly behind it. It froze the two of them solid. They hardly breathed.

Hinata's knees started shaking again.

“...That wasn't anything,” Kageyama muttered.

“Yeah, okay,” Hinata grumbled. He was embarrassed, but he made no move to loosen his hold on Kageyama. “That was a guy's voice, right?”

“...I think so.”

“Where'd it come from?”

“It sounded like it came from everywhere at the same time,” Kageyama said.

Hinata had no reply to that. He bit his lip and dug his fingers into Kageyama's arm.

“You're gonna kill my arm,” the taller boy told him. “Calm down.”

“No.”

“Do what you do to calm down before a game.”

“There's nothing scarier than this!”

Kageyama shook his head and turned back to face the hall. “Let's just keep going. Will that help?”

“...Mm-hm,” Hinata nodded.

“Okay.”

Kageyama started walking, pulling Hinata along.

Hinata pressed his cheek to Kageyama's shoulder. He closed his eyes and just focused on keeping his balance.

A few more minutes of quiet later, Kageyama gave a small gasp and faltered slightly – and then he stopped walking altogether.

“What is it?” Hinata demanded, voice rising sharply. He opened his eyes and looked for himself.

“Another hole in the floor,” Kageyama said hastily – and started tugging him back the other way. “We'll have to go back – ”

Hinata pulled a way and walked toward the dark place ahead of them, squinting. The dark part covered the floor, and extended into the wall, in a pattern that looked like a splash from a spilled drop of water.

“It's not a hole,” Hinata said, standing in it.

“What is it, then?” Kageyama asked . For the first time, Hinata realized he as very pale.

“It looks like... a stain?”

Even as he said it, a shiver ran down his spine. He felt like he was wrong...

“Maybe somebody spilled a can of paint,” he added.

“...Yeah,” Kageyama nodded. “Yeah... that has to be it.

“Let's keep going, Hinata.”

Hinata nodded and they got moving again. They passed by the stain on the floor. When they drew level with each other, Hinata found Kageyama grabbing  _his_ arm.

“...Stay close, dumbass,” Kageyama grumbled upon catching Hinata's suspicious glance.

Hinata didn't need to be told twice. Like he'd wander off in a place like this... Even having a person like Kageyama around was helpful. If he weren't there, Hinata wouldn't have ever left that classroom. He might have gone crazy in there, he thought.

He twisted his mouth.

No. He  _would_ have gone crazy if he'd had to be out here alone.

It was weird, though. It wasn't like Kageyama to be this quiet, especially around Hinata. He was always barking orders, finding  _some_ fault with  _some_ thing all the time. When he couldn't find words for that, he'd just glower.

Now, though, he wasn't even frowning. Kageyama was tense and wary and  _quiet_ , and somehow that was scarier than when he yelled. At least Hinata knew what to do with an angry Kageyama.

A  _scared_ Kageyama, though...

“Kageyama?” he asked, quietly as possible to avoid startling him again.

“Hm,” was the short response.

“...Are you scared?” Hinata wavered.

“No,” Kageyama mumbled. “No. I don't get scared.”

“That's lies.”

“It's not.”

“Is!”

“When have you ever seen me get scared?”

“...Well...” Hinata fumbled with his thoughts for a moment, and then gave up; sighing indignantly, he went on, “Everybody gets scared.”

“Not me.”

That was the end of their argument. Strangely, Hinata felt a little better.

They came to a bend in the hallway. As they got closer to it, a very, very strange smell crept into the air. It was slight at first, but as they moved on, it grew stronger. It was quiet a bit like the stench that this place had to start with, the one they'd been smelling the whole time, but... it was worse now. Stronger. Fresher.

It smelled like...  _meat_ , Hinata realized, with a sense of dread filling up his stomach.

_Meat..._ but very much  _not_ the kind he'd want to eat...

Kageyama smelled it too. They stopped just short of the bend and glanced at each other.

Kageyama looked just as sick as Hinata felt.

The stomach of the orange-haired boy turned over.

There was something  _very_ wrong here... He could feel it.

“Kageyama,” he breathed.

“Yeah.”

“I don't know if we should...”

“...But there's nowhere else for us to go...”

It was true. They were following the same stretch of hallway that they'd been following since they woke up. Any branches quickly led them to dead ends, and they'd had to backtrack.

This really was the only way forward.

Hinata could hear a sound now, as they drew closer. It was barely audible over his own racing heartbeat, but it was there.

Buzzing.

Buzzing like he always heard in summer, like what always started up before too long if somebody dropped fruit on the ground – but far, far louder.

Too loud.

The buzzing of flies on a meal should never be this loud.

Hinata gulped, fighting hard not to gag on the gradually-thickening air. He wanted to throw up. He wanted to just lie down and die rather than keep going towards the source of that smell...

But they kept moving. It was the only option they had.

They rounded the corner.

For a moment or two, Hinata didn't... really know what he was looking at. He stared at it, nonplussed, mouth slightly open, eyes glazed over.

Kageyama swore under his breath.

What they found in front of them was so grotesque that it didn't make any sense.

There was a person on the wall. Stuck there, held several inches off the ground, and nearly completely covered in blood. The person was way too still – so still that they seemed to stop the movement of the world around them.

Both hands had been skewered by paintbrushes. As Hinata looked longer, he realized that there were also paintbrushes stuck into the face – the eyes and mouth were stuffed full, pushing the features into a scream.

Barely visible beneath all the blood, Hinata saw a bit of orange fabric on the victim's shirt.

Hinata crumbled to the floor, gasping wordlessly, unable to take his eyes off the disfigured corpse. He felt Kageyama shaking his shoulders, heard him shouting, but he couldn't react.

He could only remember how to say one word – a name – and he said it now, over and over and over.

“Narita,” he whimpered, shaking violently. “ _Narita_ ...”

Even bloodstained as he was, he was unmistakable. Hinata  _knew_ his teammates.

They were his friends.

They were his  _family._

“HINATA!” Kageyama roared, shaking his shoulders, kneeling down between him and Narita's lifeless body.

Hinata's eyes locked on to Kageyama's. He reached up to grip the hands at his shoulders. He couldn't breathe, but he was breathing too fast.

“Hinata. Look at me. Just look at me.”

Kageyama's voice was a long ways off. It echoed in Hinata's ears and left no impression whatsoever.

Nothing could be louder than all that blood. Nothing could be louder than the agonizing pain Narita must have felt.

Nothing could be louder than the only thought Hinata had now.

“ _...my fault,”_ he whimpered, looking  _through_ Kageyama's frantic dark blue eyes. He let go of the hands.

“Hinata. Don't be stupid. This isn't – ”

“ _It's all my fault!_ ” Hinata cried.

He stood up abruptly, and, ignoring Kageyama's loud protests, his failed attempts to stop him, he ran on blindly past Narita's body.

He wasn't thinking anymore. Nothing was working inside his whirling, muddled brain. His body carried him – and he didn't have the desire or the ability to stop himself. He took turns at random. He didn't stop or slow down even once.

For a moment, at the very least, Shouyo Hinata was completely gone.

Far behind him, Tobio Kageyama was stopped at a three-way intersection, unable to see or hear anything from the halls stretched out ahead.

He let out a frustrated, terrified noise – turned on the spot as though looking for some sort of help – and then faced the halls again.

“HINATA!” he bellowed.

Only his own echo answered him. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

There wasn't a better way to do this.

He spun on his heel and dashed down the left-hand hallway.

He hoped to hell that Hinata had done the same.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha yeah now I've got the AzuNoya AND KageHina fans in suspense. Have fun losers.
> 
> No I'm sorry I love you. I love you all a lot. Thank you for reading. It really means a lot. It really makes my day better when I check for reads/kudos/comments and found that more have come up while I was away :D
> 
> I started work on Part 5 the other day. Not sure when I'll get done, but today starts my winter break, so I'll have plenty of time to work! :D It's Daichi, Suga, and Tanaka next time.


	5. Eye [DaiSuga + Tanaka]

They left the room, walking close together with Daichi slightly in the lead. He held on to Suga's hand, so he wouldn't lose track of him. Tanaka walked on Daichi's other side, uncharacteristically subdued. Suga was the only one who spoke, and he did so quietly, and rarely, mostly to Tanaka. The assumption was that Daichi could, to some degree, handle himself.

Daichi was doing his best. He was trying to think. How they'd gotten here, how they'd get out, where the others could possibly be – all these thoughts, and more like them, whirled through his mind without finding any sort of solution.

“You're frowning,” Suga said, breaking him out of his reverie.

Daichi blinked and shook his head a little, looking over at Suga. He found him smiling a little bit. He looked tired too, but of course Suga wouldn't be worried about himself as long as Daichi was in anything less than perfect condition.

Suga knew him too well.

Daichi tried to stop frowning, but it was difficult. He tried to mirror the expression on Suga's face.

He must have failed miserably, because Suga's smile turned concerned. He leaned over and kissed the tension between his eyebrows.

“Breathe, okay?” he said gently.

“I'll try.”

“Get a room,” Tanaka protested weakly.

“No,” Daichi said.

Suga snickered and squeezed his hand. They usually kept their relationship more under wraps for the sake of the team. It was hard to avoid outbursts of teasing from the others; every time one of them so much as smiled at the other, Tanaka or Noya or somebody would start just fucking _cackling_.

Here, though – inhibitions went away in the dark, and in any case, subtlety was the least of their concerns. Tanaka's halfhearted jab was more concerning than anything.

They came to an intersection and paused, for a moment. There were three hallways stretched out before them. Daichi looked around blankly.

“...Which way should we go?” Suga asked.

“I don't care which way we go as long as it's not left,” Tanaka said. “That was... that was where I came from. The kid I saw earlier...”

“We won't go left,” Suga agreed. “It's okay. If you came from that way, we don't need to go there anyway. You saw most of what was there, right?”

“I think so,” Tanaka replied.

“And you were calling out, too.”

“The whole way.”

“So nobody's over there,” Daichi nodded. “Let's just try straight ahead for now, yeah?”

They started along the hall. After a few moments without words, Tanaka mumbled again.

“Nobody's over there,” he said. “Nobody alive.”

Suga left Daichi's side and stood in front of Tanaka, for the first time frowning at him. He grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

“Come on, Tanaka,” he said, expression softening into a smile. He spoke as brightly as possible. “Don't think like that. Everybody's fine. Everybody's gonna be fine. We'll find everyone.”

He playfully jabbed at Tanaka's stomach.

“Okay, buddy? Let's see that big old grin sometime soon, if you can do that. We'll be back home in no time.”

Tanaka shook his head and slapped himself in the face.

“Yeah,” he smirked. “Yeah.”

“Let's get going,” Daichi said. “We can't keep standing around like this. We have to keep looking.”

“There can't be that much more ground to cover,” Suga reasoned. “It _is_ an elementary school, right? What more can there possibly be?”

\- - -

Suga's question was answered all too soon. Not only did the hallways of the school become labyrinthine in scope as they progressed – it also seemed that they were completely unoccupied. The farther they went, the less they felt they had explored.

The first real fright came when they found a big door that looked like an entrance.

“All right!” Tanaka crowed, darting forward and grabbing the handles. “Let's get out of...”

His voice trailed off. He rattled the handles again. They didn't budge.

“...What?” Suga asked, walking forward. He shook the door too, but to no avail. “Daichi. Come look at this.”

Daichi tried too. The doors didn't move at all. A locked door will give a centimeter or two either way – this one didn't.

“...It's like it's a decoration,” Daichi said, stepping back. “It's just... _attached._ ”

Suga walked to a window beside the door – dark outside, and raining – and rattled its latch. Nothing happened.

“What the hell?” Tanaka wondered out loud. “Where's the real door?”

“This is the first exterior door we've fond, huh...” Suga mused. “And we can't get out through it...”

“Even if we did get out,” Daichi spoke without really meaning to. “Where will we go?” Where is this place?”

The look Tanaka gave him told him he should have stayed quiet. Suga's confirmed it.

“Sorry.” Daichi shook his head. “This place is getting to me a little, I guess.”

“Maybe we should find a place to rest for a bit,” Suga smiled. “We all need to calm down a – ”

“ _We can't stop,_ ” Daichi interrupted.

Suga stared at him. Tanaka went white as a sheet.

Daichi hurriedly explained himself. “Look – we still have a lot of ground to cover, right? And if there's real danger to being in this place, we can't just _stop_. We have to get everybody together. We're in charge. We need to get everybody save, and then we can take all the breaks we need.”

Suga bit his lip. His eyes flicked back and forth between Daichi and Tanaka. Daichi avoided his gaze. Suga was worrying, and Daichi couldn't let him. He already made him worry too often, under normal circumstances. Here, of all places, he had to be especially careful.

“...You're right,” Tanaka said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “Yeah. I don't want to just sit around when all this shit's going on... I don't want anybody to have to see the stuff I've seen in here.”

“...Okay,” Suga finally gave in. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Fine. Let's go, then.”

They turned away from the door and started back the way they'd come.

“There aren't any other turns along this hall,” Daichi said after a moment. “We'll look in every room – all the ones here were locked, right?”

Suga sped up and grabbed his arm. Daichi looked down as the gray-haired head leaned on his shoulder.

“What's up?” he managed.

“Nothing,” Suga said. “Just... nothing.”

“...All right.”

“Take it easy,” Suga intoned. “If you lose your head in here, I don't think I'll be able to keep it together.”

He spoke quietly enough that Tanaka couldn't hear. It was better that way.

“I'm fine,” Daichi said, without looking at Suga. “I'm okay. Calm down.”

He shook Suga off of his arm and sped up.

He needed to focus.

\- - -

The first room they came to was dark. Suga stuck his head inside and called out for their teammates, but there wasn't a reply.

The second door was blocked. It opened, but after a few inches it hit something, and a foul odor wafted out.

Daichi and Suga exchanged a quick look. Without a word, Daichi closed the door.

They hadn't gone too much farther down the hall when a chill ran down Daichi's spine. He stopped dead in his tracks, shivering suddenly.

“What?” Suga hissed, looking around furtively as he and Tanaka stopped as well.

Daichi shook his head. “I... I just...”

He didn't want to go one step farther. There was something _bad_ down this hall – something that was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up. There was a coldness in the air. It seemed to form a sort of wall.

But there wasn't another way to go.

Straight ahead was the only way.

“...Nothing,” he finished. “Nothing. Let's go.”

They kept walking. Daichi was careful to keep a tight hold on Suga's hand. He didn't want to lose track of him. He also walked a little ways in front of him; whatever was down here, whatever was causing this feeling he had, he didn't want Suga finding it first.

Suga noticed this, of course. He was very aware of what Daichi was doing. Under any other circumstances, he would have reassured Daichi that there was nothing for him to worry about; they were equally capable of keeping themselves safe. They both knew it.

In this place, though, there wasn't time for asserting that. If this made Daichi feel better, he wouldn't complain.

As soon as Daichi rounded the corner at the end of the hall, he stopped again – this time throwing out an arm to stop Suga and Tanaka as well. He pushed them back behind the curve and looked again, just to be sure...

He hadn't been imagining it. The blue light down that way had a humanoid form. A small one, clad in a skirt and a sweater. The hair was divided into two little pigtails. It was a girl. She couldn't be older than twelve.

“ _What is it?_ ” Suga demanded in a whisper, attempting to move around him. Daichi held him back.

He'd just realized what the girl was holding in her hand.

It was a pair of scissors. He couldn't see the blades very well from here, but they were not the _right color..._

A quiet, guttural sound reached him from down the hall. The girl heard it too, and turned her head.

With a sinking feeling of terror, he realized that the girl was missing one of her eyes. Where it should have been, there was only a hollow, dark space. He held his breath.

The girl turned around and began walking slowly toward him... but it wasn't Daichi that her one semitransparent eye was focused on.

Instead, she was looking at a small, dark shape on the floor, about halfway down the hall. Daichi ducked back farther, prepared to run, as she drew closer, but her gaze never once moved from the little huddled form.

It was a person, he realized, as she knelt before it. A small hand rose up, silhouetted against the blue light.

“...Please,” a child's voice gurgled, agonized and weak. Daichi could hardly hear it. “Please... no... stop...”

The girl cocked her head, but her expression didn't change.

Then her face split into the widest, most unsettling grin Daichi had ever seen in his life. She raised the scissors high over her head, and then back down, in one swift motion.

The child _screeched_ , and curled up around the blades of the scissors now deep in their body. They attempted, uselessly, to pry the insubstantial hand away. It didn't work.

Daichi's heart pounded. He tore his eyes away and moved away from the corner, pressing his back to the wall. Suga and Tanaka moved back too – of course they'd moved to look; of course Daichi hadn't noticed.

They were both wide-eyed and white as paper. Tanaka was staring straight ahead but clearly seeing nothing; Suga could not take his eyes off of Daichi.

They couldn't do anything. They had to _wait_ while those screams faded out. They had to _listen_ as they died away, weak and _tortured_ – this was a _child_...

Eventually, all Daichi could hear was his own heartbeat, and then his heavy breathing, and that of Suga and Tanaka. He became aware that he was gripping Suga's hands so tight he didn't think he'd be able to let go. Both of them were freezing cold.

The silence was terrifying. It was the worst thing Daichi had ever heard.

Suga leaned around the corner slowly, eyes darting around.

“...It's gone,” he whispered. “The... blue...”

“...Was it a ghost?” Tanaka barely breathed.

“I don't see what else it could have been,” Suga shook his head and closed his eyes. He breathed for a moment. Daichi watched him do this – and felt it as the warmth began to come back to his gradually-relaxing hands. He took a moment to be glad that they could all still do these simple things.

He shouldn't think like that. He shook his head and sat up straight, and then got to his feet.

_Keep going._

“Well... This is the only way we can keep going, looks like,” he said, with forced calm, surveying the intersection. “There's gaps too big to jump on all the other halls. I guess... We'll have to...”

He glanced down the hall, putting all of his effort into keeping his eyes away from the huddled form of the child in the middle of it.

“Yeah,” Tanaka gulped. “...Yeah. I. I can do that. No big deal.”

“Yeah you can,” Suga said, patting him on the back. “You can do this. Just walk. Don't look around, just eyes straight ahead and keep going.”

Daichi nodded once and Suga squeezed his fingers. He caught his eye; there was no room for a smile anymore, but just looking at Suga's warm brown eyes made Daichi feel a little stronger.

He led the way around the corner and towards whatever lay ahead. They passed the tiny little corpse far later than Daichi thought they would, and it was even smaller than it had seemed from afar. He couldn't stop himself from looking, as hard as he tried.

The child was a boy. He couldn't have been much older than eight, maybe nine. His white school uniform was drenched in blood. His eyes were frozen wide, and his tiny hands were still clawed into the floorboards. Tears mingled with the blood on his face. A small, drawstring bag – a coin purse, maybe – lay beside him.

Tanaka made a quiet retching sound. Suga reassured him – told him to breathe, not to look, hey, it's all going to be okay – and rubbed his back with his free hand.

“I... I can't fucking do this,” Tanaka said as they passed. His voice was strained. “I can't... fucking... I mean... That's... that's a damn _kid_ , that's an _elementary school kid..._

“Where the _fuck_ is everyone? Where's Yuu?”

“We'll find them,” Daichi said tonelessly, eyes straight ahead. He didn't blink, didn't change expression. “Hear me, Tanaka? We'll find them. We'll find them, and they'll be alive, and they'll be safe, and we'll get out, and I'll see you all at practice tomorrow, no fucking excuses.”

“Daichi – ” Suga. But he didn't stop. He couldn't lose momentum here.

He started talking louder, to drown out the silence from that tiny corpse.

“ _That won't be any of you,_ ” he growled. “ _I swear._ ”

With that, he started walking faster, completely ignoring Suga's attempts to talk him down – or perhaps not registering them at all.

Daichi had one task in mind now, and nothing could tear his attention away.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was fun.
> 
> No it wasn't.
> 
> Well, I guess it could be worse. And - oh - hey - look - it's going to be.
> 
> In the very next chapter, as a matter of fact.
> 
> Thanks for all the positivity. It's always great to see those views go up, as well as kudos and comments. I quite literally wake up, roll over, and refresh AO3 every morning, so it's always great to see new input. :D I hope I can meet any expectations you may have for this story...
> 
> We meet back up with Tsukki and Freckles first in 2015. See you soon-ish!


	6. Tongue [TsukiYama]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryo, Ryuu, Yuu, Yuki. Confused yet? I am.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which 50% of Yamaguchi's dialogue is the canon 'gomentsukki' and Tsukishima probably goes 'tch' under his breath a lot

“...Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said quietly. “Where are we going?”

He had a vice-like grip on Tsukishima's hand. His palm was cold and slippery with sweat. Tsukishima took careful note of this before replying.

“We're finding the main doors,” he said. “It can't be far.”

“Every door we've tried has been locked,” Yamaguchi wavered. His fingers tightened. “I don't think there's even a way out...”

“There is,” Tsukishima grumbled. “Every place that has a way in has a way out.”

“But... Where haven't we looked?” Yamaguchi's voice was high and thin. “We just keep going, and going, and going... We've been past here before, I know we have!”

Tsukishima had noticed this fact a while ago – in fact, they'd been through this particular stretch of hallway twice before. He'd noticed. He'd been painfully aware. He'd kept quiet. He hadn't wanted Yamaguchi to panic – but now...

Yamaguchi started to slow down.

Tsukishima was about to speak up, tell him to keep moving, when the ground started to tremor.

Yamaguchi responded to it as quickly as a deer responds to a snapping twig. He froze solid, eyes wide, flicking back and forth.

“Did you feel – ” he began – and then the shaking grew stronger.

Their hands were torn away from each other as they were flung to the ground. The floor shook so hard it felt like they would be shaken to pieces. Tsukishima's heart moved way too fast – he tried to reach Yamaguchi, but they were too far apart, and Yamaguchi wasn't paying attention – he was too scared, staring at nothing, curled into a ball with his head on his knees.

“Yamaguchi!” he called, trying to at least _crawl_ towards him. 

Before he could get to his hands and knees, though, the earthquake stopped, as suddenly as it had begun.

He closed his eyes and let himself breathe. Yamaguchi didn't move. Tsukishima couldn't see his face.

“It's over,” he said quietly. “Yamaguchi. It's over.”

A tiny nod was the reply.

“You can sit up. We need to keep going.”

Silence, for a moment – and then Yamaguchi made a small sniffling noise. His shoulders shook a little – he curled up tighter.

“Yamaguchi...” He crawled over and knelt down beside him. What he saw... hurt.

Yamaguchi was crying.

He was curled in a little ball, hiding his face in his hands, crying his eyes out in silence. His mouth was barely visible – a drawn, wobbling line. He shivered with more than cold. For a while, Tsukishima scrambled for something to say to him. He couldn't find anything, nothing at all.

Tsukishima's best and only real friend. And he couldn't think of anything to say.

He reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. He really was shaking like a leaf, and harder with every smothered sob.

“We're getting out,” Tsukishima said. “There's no question. Hear me?”

Yamaguchi curled up even smaller. His hands curled into fists.

“I'm... scared,” he finally wavered – and every catch in his voice hurt like needles. “This place... there's something wrong... Can't you tell?”

He could. He'd been able to tell since the moment he woke up. It was a constant sense of deep-down, primal terror. He didn't know where it came from. They'd not seen anything to cause it. It was something about the air in here... it pressed on them from all sides, like the feeling of being watched. Invisible, insubstantial hands and eyes were on them, all over them...

Tsukishima swallowed. “...Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I know what you're talking about.”

“We're going to die in here, aren't we, Tsukki?” Yamaguchi breathed. “Aren't we?”

“ _No_ ,” Tsukishima said, firmly. His heart was thumping hard. “No, I just said that. Remember? I told you I'd get us out of here.

“...I'll get us out of here, Yamaguchi. Hear me?”

Yamaguchi sniffled and nodded.

“You don't need to cry.”

“S-sorry...”

“No... that's not what I...”

Yamaguchi nodded again, and finally took his hands away from his face.

“Okay, Tsukki,” he managed, and he forced a smile, pushing himself up to a sitting position. “I'll... I'm...”

He moved slowly, but still Tsukishima had no time to react. He blinked and Yamaguchi's arms were around him, squeezing hard.

He looked down at the top of Yamaguchi's head, puzzled for a moment, arms held away from his his sides.

Yamaguchi was sniffling and whimpering into his chest. He held tight to the back of Tsukishima's shirt.

He moved, eventually, to hug him back. He held him close. He moved his hand over the freckled boy's hair.

This shouldn't be surprising. Yamaguchi had never been one to hide his emotions. It was different now, though. He'd never been  _this_ open. Tsukishima had seen him cry a few times before.

But he'd never had this happen before. He'd never been  _cried on._

It had never scared him this much.

“...It's going to be okay, Yamaguchi,” he said, quietly. “You don't need to worry.”

Yamaguchi nodded. “I know...” he said. “I'm sorry...”

But he made no move to let go, and Tsukishima made no move to remove him. They stayed like that for several minutes, neither of them really wanting this to stop. The world around them was cold, and this was warm, and there was a friendly heartbeat nearby.

Finally, though, they had to move on. Yamaguchi's breathing evened out and he pulled away, scrubbing at his face with the back of his hand. Tsukishima didn't let go of him all the way; until he was satisfied that Yamaguchi wouldn't start crying again, he kept a tight hold on his upper arms.

“Breathe,” he reminded him.

Yamaguchi did so, and closed his eyes. He was pale.

Tsukishima stood up and pulled Yamaguchi along, watching him carefully. He stumbled a little, but steadied himself before Tsukishima could react.

“I'm okay,” he said again, rubbing his eyes.

Tsukishima nodded. “Let's keep looking.”

They hadn't walked ten steps when Tsukishima reached over and took hold of Yamaguchi's hand again.

Yamaguchi started at the contact and looked up to find him looking straight ahead, expressionless.

“It won't be far,” Tsukki said. “Okay?”

Yamaguchi felt his cheeks go red. He squeezed Tsukki's hand.

“Mm-hm,” he hummed, nodding quickly and facing the halls again.

He was lucky to have Tsukki here with him.

\- - -

Tsukishima's senses were on high alert as they went on. Yamaguchi was calmer now – that was a good thing. He had to keep him that way. He had to focus. There wasn't anything to say that he hadn't already sad, and he was afraid saying anything more would give him away. He tried as hard as he could to somehow every possible ounce of reassurance through their clasped hands. It seemed to be working. He tried not to think about it.

They were in a new part of the school now. How they'd gotten there, Tsukishima wasn't entirely sure. He was glad of it, though; if they'd gone through that same stretch of hallway again, Yamaguchi would have panicked again, and worse.

It was deafeningly quiet in here. Not a sound was made by anything but the two of them, and even these sounds were quickly swallowed up by the wooden walls. Yamaguchi clung close, as though afraid that the quiet might eat him up.

Tsukishima took turns at random. He should be keeping track of where they were going. He knew it. Somehow, though, he couldn't hold still in his head. He couldn't keep his thoughts straight. Eventually he couldn't even really see where he was going anymore. Everything was gray, dark brown, black, left, right, ahead, behind, cold – 

“ _Tsukki,_ ” Yamaguchi hissed suddenly – squeezing his arm – waking him up – pulling him to the side, into a classroom, and behind the door.

“ _What?_ ” Tsukishima demanded, confused, blinking a few times, very fast. “What – what is it?”

Yamaguchi was looking at him, wide-eyed and shaking – again. His mouth was open a little bit. His face was completely drained of all color.

“...Didn't... didn't you see?” he wavered. He was scared. Tsukishima had scared him. “Tsukki... you were looking right at it – didn't you – ?”

“What was it?” Tsukishima interrupted him.

“You... I thought you saw it... But you didn't slow down... you didn't stop...” Yamaguchi's voice was nearly reduced to sobs. “You just kept going – ”

“Never mind that,” Tsukishima reached over and grabbed the sides of Yamaguchi's head. He held him steady, looking him in the eye. Reassure him. You screwed up, idiot. “I'm okay. Talk. What did you see?”

Yamaguchi took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A few tears dropped out. Tsukishima's chest felt tight.

“I don't... really know,” he managed. “It... looked like a person, but... a kid. A kid, but... made of blue light. Floating. A little girl. Ghost. I think – I think it...”

This wasn't the first time in his life Yamaguchi had claimed he'd seen a ghost. The claim seemed so much more credible here.

Tsukishima tried as hard as he could to remember – but he couldn't. The last five minute – more? He had no idea how long he'd been wandering in that haze – were nothing but a vague, monochrome blur. No blue light – no sound – no real sight, either, he realized.

But right now, that didn't matter. Yamaguchi was trembling, on that brink again.

“Did the... ghost... did she do anything?” Tsukishima asked. “Did she see us? Did she follow?”

Yamaguchi shook his head. “I... don't think so,” he wavered. “I think we're okay – ”

He stopped talking abruptly.

Tsukishima had heard it too.

Out in the hallway, there was the sound of footsteps, running closer and closer to where they hid.

Suddenly the two of them were holding hands again. Neither of them were sure which had reached out first.

The steps drew closer. Tsukishima pulled Yamaguchi behind him a little bit, and turned his own body towards the door. His heart was hammering.

The footsteps stopped – and a voice, breathless, called out – 

“Hey! Someone's there, right?”

The voice was familiar, but Tsukishima couldn't place. Yamaguchi came unfrozen first.

“...That's Ennoshita, isn't it?” he breathed. He sounded simultaneously relieved and cautious. “Isn't it?”

“...I think so,” Tsukishima said. “...You stay here. I'll go look.”

“No!” Yamaguchi hissed, hanging on tighter, panic returning. “Don't go out there by yourself...”

“I'm just sticking my head out the door. It's nothing to worry about.”

Yamaguchi stubbornly clung on tighter.

“...Fine. Come with me, then,” he growled, and dragged Yamaguchi along with him for the two steps required to reach the door. He leaned out, and looked down the hall.

The blue light was gone. Standing in the middle of the hallway was a dark shape – the size of a teenage boy.

As soon as Tsukishima appeared, the shape moved, and called out.

“Tsukishima?” he said. “Is that you?”

Yamaguchi relaxed.

“..Yes,” Tsukishima replied.

Ennoshita laughed once and hurried towards them. The smile on his face became visible as he came closer.

“Is Yamaguchi with you?” he asked. “Anybody else?”

“Yamaguchi is here,” Tsukishima said. “No one else.”

Ennoshita's smile faltered a little. “I haven't found anybody, either,” he sighed. “I hope they're okay...”

“D-did... you see the ghost, or...” Yamaguchi stammered. Tsukishima's fingers were beginning to go numb, he was holding so tight.

“Oh – the ghost!” Ennoshita said, nodding. “Yes – a little girl, right? With an eye missing?”

Yamaguchi nodded.

“Her name's Yuki,” Ennoshita said.

“Well, that's important,” Tsukishima muttered.

“She's not dangerous,” Ennoshita went on. “Not anymore. Not for a while.”

Tsukishima raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?”

Ennoshita took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Okay... Just – come with me, okay?” he said, leading them down the hall the way he'd come. “There's a lot to explain...”

Tsukishima looked down at Yamaguchi to find him already staring back, eyes wide with apprehension. 

Tsukishima squeezed his hand.

\- - -

Ennoshita took them to a library, quite a ways from where they'd met up. He seemed way too at ease with the situation; he wasn't scared, or at least he didn't let on that he was. His sleepy eyes were alight with confidence rather than fear. He glanced back at the two of them every so often, and smiled. Tsukishima wished that Yamaguchi would let go of his hand for a little while. At least while Ennoshita was looking...

“In here,” Ennoshita said, opening a door and standing aside. “Quick.”

Tsukishima led the way into the room ahead – it was lighter in here than in the halls; there was a candle on the desk, casting a guttering light over it. Yamaguchi's fingers were freezing.

Ennoshita closed the door once they were all inside, and hurried over to the desk. Tsukishima watched him warily.

“Are you two all right?” he asked. “You haven't... found... anyone, have you?”

“W-what does that mean?” Yamaguchi wavered. “What do you mean, 'found', like that?”

“Never mind,” Tsukishima snapped. “We're fine. What do you have to tell us about?”

“Okay,” Ennoshita said, closing his eyes, gesturing at the desk, at the other items they now noticed. In the dim, flickering light of the candle, there sat a notebook, a small drawstring bag, and a bedraggled plush toy cat.

“These,” Ennoshita said, “are what we need to get out of here.”

Tsukishima blinked, nonplussed.

“...What?” Yamaguchi squeaked. “What does that mean?”

“Yeah,” Ennoshita said, opening the notebook. “It's all in here – everything I know. It was all written by this girl who came here – her name was Naho Saenoki. She got in here with her friend, the same way we did – but on purpose – with the charm, like the one Hinata brought in – ”

“I knew it,” Tsukishima growled. “That idiot...”

“Tsukki...”

“He had no way of knowing this would happen, and you know it,” Ennoshita said firmly. “I know you're scared – ”

“I'm not.”

“...but it's no use blaming Hinata for this. Now – I want to explain this quick so that I can get back to looking for everybody.

“So – this place – it's called Tenshin Elementary School. About forty years ago, a girl was killed here, and buried in the basement. Her killer cut out her tongue. Her name was Sachiko.

“The school – the  _real_ school – was shut down and demolished after three kids were kidnapped and killed here – Yuki, Ryo, and Tokiko, the other three ghosts holding this place. Sachiko's ghost killed them, and cut out their tongues.”

Yamaguchi hugged Tsukishima's arm. The way he clung on told Tsukishima that the shorter boy was barely holding his own weight anymore.

No expression. Hold on.

Ennoshita pulled one hand slowly down his face and breathed again. “Long story short, we need to get their tongues – they're somewhere in the school – and give them back. If we want to get out, we have to appease the four of them.

“And to get out of here, we just have to combine our paper scraps and say the charm again.

“We put all our scraps together,

“and we say, 'Sachiko, we beg of you' – 

“ - once for each of us, and once for Sachiko.”

Tsukishima's heart sank before he knew why. Realization followed quickly.

“You two still both have your pieces, right?” Ennoshita said, eyes wide.

Yamaguchi nodded quickly. “Y-yeah,” he said.

Good.

“Mmh,” Tsukishima said, flicking his head up and down once.

Ennoshita's brow relaxed. “Good,” he smiled. “Excellent.”

“Do... you know what the earthquakes are?” Yamaguchi asked him.

“Oh – those happen when the ghosts are appeased,” he explained. “I appeased Yuki, and some of the planes – 

“I forgot to mention. The reason you haven't seen anybody is there's nobody else in our version of the school. Everyone else is in different planes – and we can't reach them. The ghosts hold the planes apart. When we give them their tongues back, the planes move closer together – that's what causes the earthquakes. Once we help all of them, we'll all be back on the same plane, and we can go home.”

He gestured at the drawstring bag. “This is Ryo's tongue,” he said. “I haven't found Tokiko's, or Sachiko's. The cat belongs to her, though. I saw a picture of her holding it. I figured it might help us out, so I grabbed it.”

“So... we need to find the other ghosts, and give them back their tongues,” Tsukishima said.

“And then find everyone else,” Ennoshita nodded. “Now, they  _are_ dangerous – but I think we can handle it. Just don't touch them, or get too close – and whatever you do, don't look Ryo in the eye.”

Yamaguchi gulped. 

“It was taking a while, finding everything myself,” Ennoshita said. “I'm glad you two are here.

“And... you're sure you didn't happen to see Kinoshita, or Narita, did you?”

“No,” Tsukishima said.

Ennoshita's eyebrows creased together for a moment, but he quickly resolved his expression. He smiled.

“That's okay,” he said. “We'll find them later. We'll find everybody.”

Yamaguchi loosened his grip a little. “Where haven't you looked yet?” he asked.

“Most of upstairs and the other wing,” Ennoshita replied. “This place is kind of... huge.”

“We'd better get going, then, Tsukishima said. “Where should we start?”

“Follow me,” Ennoshita said. He picked up the tongue bag and, after a moment of disgusted confusion, put it in his pocket. He led the way out into the hall.

Tsukishima let him stay a few steps ahead. He squeezed Yamaguchi's hand, and spoke to him, but didn't look at him. He kept his eyes straight ahead.

“See?” he said. “You'll be just fine.”

Yamaguchi hummed, almost contentedly. He was still a little pale, but... better, better.

With empty pockets, Tsukishima walked on.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So remember how I said things were going to get really bad this chapter? Turns out that I lied. I /meant/ for bad things to really kick into high gear in this one, but things happened and suddenly Ennoshita talked more than I meant him to and this chapter was the longest one yet and long story short I didn't have room for shit to go down for these two yet. It'll be the next one, guys - that'll be the one to panic about. Probably. This was the obligatory 'summarize Corpse Party' bit. I promise that was all we'll see of the canon plot. Aside from appeasing Sachiko (if they get that far (cackles))
> 
> Asahi and Noya return next time. Shouldn't be too long a wait, though next week is finals week and I won't be getting a lot of writing done.
> 
> Thanks as always for all the positivity! I never expected this much attention. <3


	7. How It Feels To Die [AsaNoya]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello there! It's been a little bit, huh? 
> 
> This is the longest chapter I've written yet. It's nearly 18 sides of paper handwritten. To put that in perspective, the last one was only 11.
> 
> Enjoy 4300 words' worth of Asahi and Noya in peril. Shit really starts getting real in this one.

 

Asahi favored his left leg more and more as they went on. He was tense. His breathing was short and his eyes darted around without stopping. His grip on Noya's hand grew tighter with every unexplained sound from the building around them.

Noya had to say something.

“Hey,” he said – quietly, to keep from startling him. “What are you so worried about?”

Asahi jumped a little anyway, and looked down at him uneasily. His dead-white face grew a little red. It didn't look healthy.

“N-nothing,” he croaked in reply, looking away from Noya. “I'm fine.”

“You're not,” Noya retorted.

“...I am.”

“Asahi, look at me.”

Noya stopped and made Asahi do the same. The taller boy's good knee wobbled dangerously. Noya walked around in front of him and braced his arms, looking sternly up into his eyes.

The two of them hadn't been together long – not _officially,_ anyway. They, had, for a long time, held hands when nobody was looking, or curled up in each others' arms when they spent the night at each others' houses. They'd done that a lot. Asahi's parents loved Noya. Noya's parents were never home.

They had a lot of time for each other.

Asahi flushed a little more when Noya looked him in the eye. It took him a few tries to keep eye contact.

“It's going to be just fine,” Noya said, as steadily as he could manage. “You don't need to worry, okay? Let me worry for you, for once?”

“...Sorry,” Asahi mumbled. “I'm... I'll...”

“Breathe.”

Asahi closed his eyes. Noya rubbed his shoulders.

“Just breathe a little, okay?” Noya said, as gently as he could. “None of this is a big deal. We'll find a place for you to rest. Then we'll find everybody. Then we'll get out of here. Okay?”

Asahi didn't open his eyes, but he did nod.

Noya frowned a little. He took Asahi's hand again and let him on.

\- - -

They found a place to stop sooner than Asahi anticipated. Yuu stopped, let go of Asahi's hand, and gestured at the door.

“Well – this looks like a good place, yeah?” he beamed, gesturing at the sign – which read 'infirmary'.

Asahi nodded. Anything to stop walking around. Anything to stop leaning on Yuu. He couldn't keep being so much trouble...

Yuu pushed the door open and led the way inside. Asahi winced as he put weight on his bad leg. He hid the pain as best he could, but he couldn't tell if it was working.

“Ah, yep, there's a bed in here,” Yuu said, squinting. “Let's get you over there, okay?”

Asahi hobbled over, refusing help, and sank down onto the ancient hospital cot. His ankle really was hurting him now; he had to stop himself from groaning out loud. Walking on it hadn't helped at all. It was actually throbbing now. He hoped he hadn't broken it...

“Lie down,” Yuu instructed him – and he did. “I'm gonna find something to fix up your leg with.”

As Yuu began rummaging through the room looking for bandages, Asahi closed his eyes and tried to untangle the knot of worry now tight in the back of his head. He couldn't freak out. Not anymore. Not in front of Yuu. He couldn't keep dragging him down.

Of course Yuu would say it was okay. That was why he didn't bother apologizing. 

He just had to work harder, then. Even in their everyday lives, Asahi was just a dead weight. He couldn't keep doing this. Especially not here. Especially not when they found the others. He was supposed to be a pillar of support for them; he couldn't be weak.

And, god,  _where were they?_

He gritted his teeth and tried to move his leg. The damaged ankle twinged angrily in protest.

_Just don't show it._

_That can't be hard, can it?_

“Here,” Yuu called from across the room, pulling something out of a desk drawer. “A splint and – hey – an ACE bandage. Haha. Perfect.”

Asahi laughed once, and even smiled a little. “You're... dumb,” he sighed.

“Oh,  _I'm_ dumb,” Yuu snorted, walking back over, rolling his eyes. “Sit up. Lemme see that leg.”

Asahi pushed himself up to a sitting position and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Yuu knelt down before him and poked his ankle.

Asahi hissed in pain, in spite of himself.

Yuu frowned up at him, squinting his eyes almost shut. “I told you you were dumb.”

Asahi's face flushed a little. He couldn't meet Yuu's eyes, once again.

Yuu pulled off Asahi's shoe and sock. He held his foot by the heel – touching it lightly, careful to hold the joint steady.

Even after months and months of closeness, Asahi still marveled at how gentle the usually-hectic Yuu was with him. He handled Asahi's injury so well that it actually hurt less even before he had finished splinting it. He worked quickly but effectively. He'd gotten good at tending these kinds of things.

“Just a sprain,” Yuu said, smiling up at him. “Any better?”

“Y-yeah,” Asahi stammered, looking away from him again. “Just a little sore...”

“It's gonna be that way for a while. No volleyball for you for a couple weeks, at least. I don't want you jumping around on that.

“Now, lie down. Get some sleep, even, all right? You need it. You look half-dead.”

Asahi lay down, and Yuu stood up. He put his hands on his hips. His expression was calm; he smiled only slightly, looking down at him.

“...What are you looking at me like that for?” Asahi mumbled, glancing away.

“Hah. Nothing,” Yuu said. He reached over to touch Asahi's cheek. “You're just... cute.”

Asahi's face went red and he hid it behind his hands. “I'm not,” he protested, unable to hold back a smile.

Yuu took his hand away. “Okay, you're not,” he said. “Sure.”

“Shut up...”

Yuu sighed, and was quiet for a moment. Asahi uncovered his eyes and looked up at him. He was looking back, over his shoulder, at the rest of the room. Asahi hadn't really looked around yet himself. The infirmary wasn't large. There was a desk in one corner, a screen in the middle of the room, and that was about it. It didn't seem as cold in here as the rest of the school. The cot smelled like dust, but at least it didn't smell like... whatever it was that the rest of the place stank of.

“I'm gonna go look around, okay?” Yuu asked – and Asahi's stomach sank. “I'll be back in like ten minutes. Take a nap or something...”

He started to walk away. He hadn't taken two steps when Asahi lunged after him and grabbed his hand. 

“No – hey – wait...”

Yuu looked down at their hands, and then back up at Asahi, eyebrows raised.

Asahi tried to speak, but for a moment, words wouldn't come. He just held on tighter, and stared at him.

Yuu couldn't leave. He didn't know if he could take it.

It was too cold in here...

“What?” Yuu asked, lowering his voice, turning back. “What is it?”

“...S-stay,” Asahi finally managed. He looked at the floor. “Please, Yuu, I...”

_I don't want to be alone in here. I don't want you to leave me._

_I'm scared._

So much for staying strong.

“...Yeah,” Yuu replied, sitting down beside him. “I'll stay. Exploring can wait.”

“Thank you,” Asahi whispered, lying back down all the way, not letting go of Yuu's hand.

Yuu lay down as well, smiling at him. “You really are just a giant puppy dog, aren't you?”

“Shut up.”

Yuu moved close. He let go of Asahi's hand only to wrap his arms around the taller boy's head. He hugged him close to his chest.

“It's going to be okay,” he said.

Asahi closed his eyes and just focused on breathing. He felt Yuu pulling at the elastic band holding his hair in its bun.

“Hey,” he protested weakly.

“Chill out,” Yuu sighed. “I'll put it back up for you in a bit.”

“You always do it wrong.”

“Let me touch your damn hair.”

He pulled the band free and combed his fingers through Asahi's hair a few times. Asahi relaxed again, and draped an arm around Yuu's waist.

“...Look, I'll stay here for as long as you need,” Yuu said after a moment. “And I'll keep you safe when we head out again. I've got your back just like always. If your leg's hurting too bad for you to walk, I'll carry you.”

“You'll carry me.”

“I'll fucking carry you.”

“I'm huge.”

Yuu's hold on his head tightened. “I. Will. Fucking. Carry. You.”

It worked. Asahi laughed. But his stomach twinged a little. Guilt, probably. That was what usually happened.

He shouldn't have to depend on Yuu like this. He was a giant. He was big and strong. He should be able to stand up for himself. He should be able to handle all of this.

He should be the one carrying Yuu.

The smaller boy gently scratched at the back of Asahi's head. “Try not to worry too much, Asahi,” he said. “It makes your face look weird.”

“I'm trying.”

“It's like asking you to stop breathing, huh?”

“A little.”

Yuu took in and let out a huge sigh. Asahi listened carefully to the sounds it made in his chest – and to his heartbeat. Ir didn't seem possible for someone as dynamic as him to have a calming presence.

“We'll find everybody,” Yuu said. “The whole team. And we'll get out of here. We'll get home. I'll stay over at your place as long as you need me to, afterwards, okay? I'm always here.”

“You should probably just move in,” Asahi mumbled.

Yuu laughed. “We'll see about that,” he said. “I'm up for it.”

Asahi's heart fluttered a little. This condition worsened as Yuu kissed the top of his head.

“ _Stop_ – you're terrible,” he managed, muffling his voice in Yuu's chest. His face had to be on fire.

“'Terrible' is my goal,” Yuu replied, continuing with his stroking of Asahi's hair. “I try. I really try.”

This was nice, Asahi realized. Even in a place like this, with Yuu this close, he could start to relax.

He even managed – remarkably – to fall asleep there, surrounded by Yuu's comforting warmth. If he dreamed at all during those few minutes, it was of the times just like this that they'd spent at home.

Peace came so rarely...

\- - -

As soon as he was sure Asahi was asleep, Noya began to move.

He carefully wriggled his way out from Asahi's arms, trying hard not to wake him. He'd just gotten him calmed down; he couldn't let him get freaked out again.

He also couldn't just sit around like this when they still had no idea where anyone was. He had to look around. He wouldn't be long. He'd be back before Asahi woke up.

He stopped in the doorway and looked back at him. He hadn't stirred at all.

It didn't feel right, leaving him in here.

Noya shook his head and smiled a little to himself. What had he just gotten done telling Asahi? It was fine. He hadn't lied or anything. They really would be just fine.

He just had to find the way out. It wouldn't take long. It was a damn elementary school. The things were tiny.

He stepped out into the hall. He didn't realize it until he got out there, but...  _Shit_ , he'd been dreading this. It was harder to handle this place alone. He'd had to keep his chin up, for Asahi's sake – but now that he was alone, he didn't have a reason to block it out. The cold was beginning to creep into his bones.

He shivered. He wanted to go back... It was so much safer back there with Asahi.

Noya shook his head vigorously. Nah – he had to keep going.

Ryu was in here somewhere. He had to find him. Ryu was strong – he was strong as hell – but there was something  _way_ wrong here. He liked to think that Ryu could handle it, but all bets were off in a place like this.

And Shouyo. He would fucking  _snap_ if he ended up alone. 

He was glad he'd gotten to Asahi before the school had.

Nothing bad had happened. There had been that blue light from earlier, but...

He could just  _feel_ danger, everywhere in this place.

Noya distracted himself by counting his steps. He counted the number of times the floorboards squeaked. Left turn, right turn. There was silence on all sides, but he was constantly listening for any sound at all. He twisted Asahi's hairband, wrapped it around his fingers. That made him feel a little better.

He hadn't gone too terribly far from the infirmary when something... shifted. Something changed in the air, and it sent a shiver all through is body. The air was  _brittle,_ somehow – ready to shatter. He was overtaken with the urge to  _run_ , as far and fast as he could.

But he forced himself to hold still. He forced himself not to move – just to focus. His mind flashed to that blue light. His heart sank deep into his stomach.

_No._

_Hold still._

_Think._

It took a little while, but he figured out what had changed – what the source of the disturbance had been.

A sound. A distant, muffled sound, but drawing closer, and  _clearer._

He closed his eyes and listened more carefully.

_Footsteps._ Hard to tell, from however far away he was, but he thought they were heavy, lumbering –  _running._

Now Noya's heart was sprinting, and he wanted with everything in him to just  _run_ . Those footsteps weren't just running.

They were  _chasing._

There was a scream. Quiet. Distant.

And now – incredibly,  _stupidly_ – Noya was running  _towards_ it, all the pent-up adrenaline pouring out at once, into his legs.

It was luck that the path he took was mostly straight, because he was no longer paying any attention to the turns.

It didn't take long. Another hole in the floor – too wide to jump – stopped him.

He'd gone as far as he needed, though. Any farther, and...

Another scream split the air, down the opposite end of the hallway, across the gap. Somebody came staggering out into the open, and fell against the wall, choking, crying – 

But the heavy footsteps kept going – huge, shuffling, unsteady – and they held Noya back from calling out to the person on the floor.

They lay there now, huddled against the wall, quiet, frantic sobbing noises reaching Noya even at this distance.

He wanted to help.

It was his job to help, even if he knew it was too late.

From here, though, all he could do was – 

“HEY!” he bellowed, “GET UP!”

The crying paused. The footsteps grew even closer, even louder. Something crashed. There was a bone-chilling groan.

“GET UP AND RUN!” Noya screamed.

He couldn't see the person's face, or any other details. Only the outline of their head as they raised it and then lowered it again. Their crying grew louder. Their silhouette grew smaller. They were curled up in a little ball.

The loudest crash of them all sounded then and strangled Noya's next shout.

The form of something – someone –  _enormous_ burst forth, with a deafening, guttural  _screech_ .

The tiny, shivering figure screamed, high and loud, once last time.

The giant raised a hammer the size of Noya's entire body.

Noya wasn't sure who screamed loudest as the hammer smashed the silhouette to pieces.

He clapped a hand over his mouth and staggered backwards.

The giant didn't move for a moment. Then it pulled its hammer out of the remains with a sickening  _thud._

Noya's stomach lurched.

The shadow turned. And it bellowed again, this time  _at him._

Noya was gone before he could think. He ran as hard as he could, slamming into corners, tripping over his own feet.

_Asahi._ His only conscious thought.  _Asahi Asahi ASAHI._

\- - -

Asahi slept soundly for a little while, all things considered. Hen he woke up, it was slowly, as he did when he was at home.

But he was cold. Yuu wasn't beside him. And was was that knocking on the door?

“...Asahi, this isn't fucking funny!”

He shook himself the rest of the way awake and sat up, blinking away the sleep. It was dark. He couldn't see – 

Something slammed heavily into the door. A voice – Yuu's – called out.

“Asahi! Open the damn door!”

“Yuu?” he called back, alert and terrified by the urgency in his voice. He scrambled out of bed. “What's – ” 

“ _Open the fucking door!_ ” Yuu cut him off, once again slamming his body against it.

“I didn't... close it...” Asahi trailed off.

He shivered. It seemed as though the temperature had dropped ten or twenty degrees. He turned his head, slowly, to look around.

The place didn't  _look_ any different.

But something...  _something_ ...

“ _ASAHI!_ ” Yuu screeched again, from beyond the door, flinging himself at it again.

Asahi shook his head to clear it and hurried across the room.

_Nothing._ It wasn't anything.

But Yuu was  _panicking._

Asahi felt his way over to the door as quickly as he could in the oppressive darkness. His heart was going crazy. He could hardly breathe.

His hand finally reached the door – and immediately recoiled, cold washing over him once again.

The door was completely covered – wrapped, locked up tight – with long strands of black hair.

“It's... locked,” Asahi croaked.

“Then unlock it!”

“No, it's... tied shut.”

“Wait... what?”

“I don't know!” Asahi burst out. Tears stung his eyes. “There's... there's just...  _hair..._ ”

“...It's tied shut with  _hair?_ ” Yuu demanded, disgusted.

“Y-yeah,” Asahi rubbed at his eyes. As hard as he was trying to stay steady, he could feel everything going  _wrong_ inside his head. Everything. This was all his fault. Him and his stupid leg. If he hadn't been an idiot and gotten hurt, they wouldn't have had to come here.

“If it's hair,” Yuu said, much more calmly than before, breaking him out if it, “Just find something to cut it with. There's scissors in the desk. I saw them. Kinda dull, but they should do it. Calm down, okay? It's gonna be okay.

“I'm sorry I yelled. I didn't mean to scare you.”

Asahi tried his best to keep the catch out of his voice as he replied.

“Okay,” he said. “Okay.”

“Now hurry up and get out here. I need to fix your hair.”

Asahi managed a smile.

He turned around and found himself face-to-face with a pair of glowing red eyes.

He choked and leapt back, colliding hard with the door.

A figure – taller than him, wider, made of black and glowing red on the edges – stood before him.

It did not move its body, but it drew closer. Yuu shouted something from beyond the door, but Asahi couldn't hear him.

He filled up with cold and emptiness as the thing moved towards him. He could feel his body failing him.

And he knew that this must be what it felt like to die.

“ _ASAHI!_ ”

The shout was what moved him, and just in time. He started, stumbled to the side, and darted across the room, breathing hard. He turned his head back to look.

The figure was approaching again. Slowly. But he knew he couldn't fight it off. It could take all the time it wanted, because it would win. He had no way out. It had him trapped.

Yuu was throwing himself against the door again. Even from out there, he could tell something was wrong. The hair strained but didn't break.

_Cut it._

_Just find something to cut it._

The desk in the corner. His only hope. He staggered towards it and flung the drawers open, one by one, rifling through them with hands shaky with adrenaline.

Five of the six drawers had nothing. He could feel the chill down his back, and a deep, low  _hum_ filled his ears.

It was right behind him  _it was right behind him itwasrightbehindhim_

His hand found the handle of a pair of sewing scissors and gripped tight. Without thinking, he screamed loud and spun around, swinging the scissors in a wide arc.

The blades passed straight through the black thing, and another charge of ice shot up Asahi's arm. The door was shuddering hard, and Yuu was still shouting incoherently behind it.

But Asahi couldn't move.

His legs didn't work.

_Yuu._

The red glowing eyes were taking up half of his vision. But they were fading. Everything was going a little gray at the edges. He could feel the blood leaving his head. The attacks on the door took longer, happened slower.

Asahi stumbled back against the desk.

Even his heart, beating so frantically not to long ago, was beginning to give in.

He couldn't even breathe anymore.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as the red-eyed thing grew still closer –

_MOVE!_

The voice shouted inside his head – but it wasn't his. It started him awake – and he rolled out of the way of the monster just in time to miss its hand, reaching towards his forehead.

He fell to the ground and the scissors skittered away. He felt heavy, sluggish.

_GET UP!_

With monstrous effort, he crawled forward, eyes on the scissors, _only_ on the scissors. He grabbed them and hauled himself off the floor, knocking the screen over on his way to the door.

He hacked and stabbed at the hair locking it shut. Even the dull old blades of the scissors cut it away like it wasn't there.

He could feel those eyes on him again. They were boring into the back of his head.

“GET BACK!” he screamed as the door strained again. “YUU!”

His voice was high with fear. He stammered a little. Hearing himself scared him again, and the scissors slipped again. He gasped as the blades sliced open his palm.

But he was nearly done.

The hand was over his shoulder. He could feel its presence prickling on his jaw.

He was bleeding. He was fading again.

_HURRY._

He cut the last lock and pulled the door open, leaping out and pulling it shut behind him before scrambling as far away from it as he could, falling over and colliding with the opposite wall. He collapsed – shaking, wide-eyed – to the floor.

It was warm out here.

It couldn't get him...

“Asahi. _Asahi._ ”

Yuu was there. He was holding Asahi up. His hands were warm, almost hot, on his dead-chilled arms.

“Asahi – look at me – oh, god, you're _bleeding_ – ”

Yuu was holding his injured hand, carefully examining the cut. Asahi focused on their hands, on the warmth there. The door was closed. He was safe. He was with Yuu.

It couldn't... it couldn't get him...

“Asahi.”

Yuu's hands were on either side of his head now. _Warm._ And his voice was rock-steady. “Look at me. Hey.”

He couldn't. He couldn't look up. If he did, he'd break. A concerned face was too much. He couldn't cry in front of Yuu. Not again...

“ _Asahi._ ”

Yuu ducked his head and looked up into Asahi's face. His eyes were wide. There was not an ounce of his normal cocky self-assurance. He was scared, and _Asahi had scared him._

Just as he'd feared, Asahi broke down crying.

He tried to hide his face away in his hands but Yuu's shoulder was already there.

Thin, wiry arms wrapped around to Asahi's back and held him close and tight. A hand stroked his hair again.

“Asahi... Asahi...”

Asahi clung on tight too, and buried his face deeper into Yuu's shoulder, hiding his tears but not his shivering. He was _sobbing_ now, and he couldn't remember how to _stop_...

Yuu kissed his temple. “Hey,” he breathed. “It's all okay now. You're okay, Asahi – I'm here, okay? I've got you.”

Asahi sniffled and nodded, shifting closer. “I'm okay,” he wavered. “I-I'm... okay...”

“You're not, you giant puppy,” Yuu grumbled. “I'm staying right here and we're not moving until you don't need to cry anymore. And don't you dare try to stop before you need to.”

Asahi nodded.

Yuu squeezed him and rocked a little. “There we go,” he said quietly. Another kiss above his ear. “There we go...”

Asahi closed his eyes around more tears and choked a little. He dropped his arms and just let Yuu hold him.

And he just breathed, because now he had time.

\- - -

Noya held Asahi tight, running his fingers through his hair, saying a few quiet words every so often to keep him calm.

He had to act like they had all the time in the world. He knew Asahi would force himself to stop crying before he really should – and this time, _only this time,_ Noya would have to allow that.

He'd been to far away to see who had been killed. But he had the strange, sinking feeling that – maybe – it had been somebody he knew.

Not Ryu, he was sure. Ryu would never stop running.

After that, though...

He couldn't think about that. No. No. Not now. He had to focus on just Asahi. He had to keep him steady, and away from harm.

He held Asahi tighter and kissed him again as the sobs got stronger.

_That won't be you,_ he vowed silently.

_I swear on my goddamn life I am getting you out of here._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really fun to write. You can probably tell now which is my favorite ship out of the four in this fic. I hope you enjoyed! :D
> 
> Who likes emotional turmoil I like emotional turmoil 
> 
> Seven more chapters to go!
> 
> I just want to say another quick thank-you for all the positivity this has been getting. As of me posting this chapter, the fic has 65 kudos and nearly 800 hits. I am, as far as I know, the first person to write a fic of this particular crossover, so I wasn't really sure how it would be received. I never thought it would get as much attention as it has, and all of it positive, at that! :D I really hope I can continue to give you guys a good enough story.
> 
> I'm gonna shamelessly plug my Tumblr here. If you want to keep up on the status of updates to this fic, drop me a hello, or get unfunny commentary on things I find interesting, you'll find it at i-homeostasis.tumblr.com. If you just want fic updates, add 'tfl updates' to the end. I'm not too annoying, I promise.
> 
> I love feedback. I sometimes open up my inbox and read through the the comments that this thing has gotten already and smile really hard. And cackle a little bit to myself, I'll admit. It's fun.
> 
> Anyway - Kageyama and Hinata return in the next chapter. Well, Kageyama does. We kinda gotta look for Hinata a little bit. He kind of ran off last time. Hope he's okay.
> 
> Lol.


	8. Sympathy Pains [KageHina]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last time we were with these two, Hinata ran off after they discovered Narita's corpse. Kageyama goes after him. Let's see what he finds...

_Kageyama got lost almost immediately._

On the path he chose first, he found a dead end right away. When he turned back, and started to retrace his steps, an earthquake shook the building, and when it was over, the hall he was in had changed completely. There were dead ends on either side of the hallway he'd started on, and a new way branching off in the middle.

He had to be imagining that, but it didn't seem to out of reach for a place like this.

He'd long since given up on calling for Hinata. He never received a reply, and the school seemed to hear him instead. The walls could read his thoughts. His only hope was looking, making himself believe that the next turn would show him Hinata. The next one. _The next one._

Kageyama couldn't stop thinking about Narita, somewhere behind him, swallowed by the school by now. He'd died horribly. Kageyama didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't stop himself.

_Who had done that?_

_Who could have even thought to do that?_

The amount of power needed to shove a child's paintbrush through a human skull and into a wall, deep enough that he wouldn't fall off...

He could feel his eyeballs popping. His hands ached. He clenched and unclenched his fists a few times.

Who had done that... and could they, would they, do the same to Hinata?

He shook his head.

_Idiot. He'll be fine. You'll find him and you'll yell at him for running off. And he'll yell back. Just like normal. You'll argue the whole way out of here. That'll make you feel better._

_Wait – no. Shut up. You're fine. You don't need to worry about a damn thing. You feel fine. Hinata's fine._

_Shit, it's cold in here._

_Hinata's cold too. Wherever he is._

_Goddammit, stop._

_He's like the damn sun. The sun doesn't get cold._

Kageyama tripped over a hole in the floor and swore under his breath. He stumbled and barely managed to catch himself on the wall.

The cut on his arm was bleeding again. He must have caught it on something. It didn't hurt. Not much. It would be kind of annoying at volleyball practice, but he could live with it.

He realized his heart was sprinting, pounding against his ribs. His breathing came in gasps.

He wanted to keep moving, but he had accidentally reached some kind of limit...

He leaned heavily on the wall and slid down it to his knees. He closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath. Now that he thought about it, he had been running for about the last hour or so, hadn't he?

He was sweating, even though it was freezing in here. He could hear the low hum of the silence even over the rushing of his own blood.

Then another sound interrupted those. It was a sudden, sharp clank – it startled him awake.

There was a metallic grinding – like something rolling across the floor. It stopped before too long, with a quiet _thump._

Kageyama stood up. The sounds made him feel uneasy – they came from close buy... just around the corner, really.

Maybe he should check it out.

He moved as quickly as he could, but quietly too. He hurried to the doorway he thought the sounds had come from, and found himself in front of a bathroom. He hesitated, and then stepped inside.

All the stall doors were closed. This was definitely the right place, though...

And now he heard a different sound. One that made his stomach turn.

It sounded like... _choking._

Choking, gagging. Another metallic clank – and something thudded against the gap under the stall door. A bucket.

_A bucket?_

The choking sound grew louder. There was coughing behind it now.

And somehow, Kageyama recognized the voice.

He shot forward and threw the door open before he'd really even decided to do so.

He stared for a second, breath caught in his chest, because he had to be seeing things.

But he blinked and there was still a rope tied to the rafters, and there was still a body dangling from that rope, and that body still belonged to Shouyo Hinata.

The boy's eyes were wide and glazed over. His mouth was open and saliva spilled out. His hands were at his sides, terrifyingly relaxed.

“Hinata! What the hell are you – ”

As he spoke, he kicked the bucket out of the way and grabbed hold of Hinata's legs. He turned around and sat him down on his shoulders, slackening the rope, enough – he hoped – for Hinata to breathe.

Hinata drooped forward, resting against the back of Kageyama's head. He was breathing okay, but wheezing, hard.

“Hinata?” Kageyama demanded. “You hear me?”

There was no reply.

“I'm untying you. What the fuck were you thinking?”

Carefully, Kageyama reached up to the rope, holding as still as he could. He couldn't think. His shaking hands slipped over the knot several times before he could get a hold on it.

Hinata was breathing, but he still felt like he was too late.

He was scared. Out of his mind.

This was... He couldn't... It didn't _work_ in Kageyama's head.

Hinata _never_ gave up. He was really fucking annoying that way. He never stopped trying. Even if literally the entire universe told him he should quit, he'd keep going just to spite it.

So what... what the _fuck_...

Kageyama found the rope loose in his hands. He pulled it away from Hinata's neck.

“You good?”

Nothing.

“...Okay. I'm gonna carry you out of here and then let you down. Okay?”

Still nothing. Kageyama closed his eyes and moved forward.

Hinata was light as a feather. It wasn't hard to carry him. He'd been too light for the rope to have done much damage in the time he'd been up there.

Kageyama didn't want to think about how long Hinata could have stayed alive like that.

Shit, if he hadn't been _right there..._

He stepped outside the stall, closed it carefully behind them, and lowered Hinata off his back.

Hinata didn't even try to support his own weight. He immediately crumbled to the floor, and sat there with his head ducked low, not moving at all.

Kageyama stared at him, kneeling in front of him, trying to catch his eye.

Hinata wouldn't look up. He stared listlessly at the ground. He was pale. There was a thick, dark purple bruise around his neck.

“Can you breathe?”

Hinata's expression didn't change.

Kageyama was lost for words again. All he could do was stare. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but nothing came out. There was a hollow, eating horror in the pit of his stomach. Hinata was down. How the hell was he supposed to be okay?

Hinata coughed. It sounded painful, but he didn't react at all.

“Just...” Kageyama spluttered. “...What the fuck, dumbass? What the fuck are you doing?”

At this, Hinata finally responded. He moved a little. He curled up small, dropping his head even lower.

“...It's all my fault,” Hinata croaked. His little fists clenched. “All this... it's... my fault... Narita... everybody... your arm... I...”

“What the hell? This isn't your fault. You didn't know this would happen. How the fuck would you have known?”

Hinata seemed to get even smaller. He hugged himself tight, and rocked back and forth a little.

Kageyama blinked – several times. He squinted at the orange-haired boy, certain he had to be seeing things.

Hinata seemed to be surrounded by something that looked like smoke – and Kageyama realized it had been there since he found him.

Hinata's rocking grew a faster. The smoke grew thicker.

“My fault...” Hinata whimpered. “My fault...”

Kageyama's heart skipped a beat and his stomach sank.

“No – Hinata, listen to me – ”

He couldn't hear Kageyama anymore. Somehow, Hinata wasn't here anymore.

_What am I supposed to do?_

While he was frantically scrambling for an answer, Hinata stopped moving.

He stopped rocking and held eerily still for a few seconds. Then he turned – slowly – and faced the partition between the toilet stalls.

“Hinata...?” Kageyama breathed. He felt cold, all through. The smoke over Hinata's little frame grew thicker.

Without any warning at all, Hinata snapped his head forward and _slammed_ it as hard as possible into the unyielding wood.

Kageyama cried out in wordless alarm – and Hinata did the same thing, again and again and _again_ , and even thought Kageyama tried to hold him back – wrapping both arms around his middle, screaming in his ear – he just _kept on going._

The smoke was so thick Kageyama could hardly see him anymore.

“HINATA!”

With a sudden burst of energy, Kageyama pulled as hard as he _possibly_ could. He held his breath, braced his feet against the sides of the stall –

The two of them fell backwards onto the floor. Kageyama's head cracked hard off the boards, stunning him a little – but he had to get up. Something was wrong. He could taste it.

He pushed himself up to a sitting position and looked down at Hinata, who hadn't moved an inch. The smoke was still there, but now he could at least see through it.

Hinata was flat on his back, and he stared at nothing. He was ashy white, except for a deep red-and-purple gash on his forehead.

His mouth was slightly open and tears leaked from the corners of his eyes.

He didn't move, even as Kageyama leaned over him, grabbed his shoulders, and began to shake him.

“Hinata,” he growled. “Wake the hell up. What the hell are you do – ”

He blinked and there were hands around his neck.

They were Hinata's.

Kageyama made a choked, surprised nose – the orange-haired boy's eyes were _wide_ now, and his mouth was stretched into a crazed grin.

Kageyama tried to pull back, but Hinata's grip was iron. He couldn't move.

Hinata's thumbs pressed so hard on his windpipe that it _had_ to be about ready to break, shatter into pieces.

Hinata was _giggling_ now. The black smoke got even thicker. His face was all that Kageyama could see.

Frantically, his fingers scrabbled at the hands squeezing the life out of him. His lungs strained but received no air. He _gagged_ , and he tried to say something, but only a whisper came out. He could hear his blood pounding through his brain.

He was going to die here, wasn't he?

And Hinata was going to be the one who killed him.

Hinata was going to have to live with that.

Or not – the rope – _the rope –_

Kageyama gathered the rest of his strength, raised his right arm between Hinata's, and struck as hard as he could at Hinata's inner elbow.

The arm folded and Kageyama freed himself, rolling as far away from him as he could – hitting the bathroom wall, coughing and panting to catch his breath.

He watched through narrowed eyes as the darkened figure of Hinata moved – sat up, turned its head.

He had to run.

He had to get up and run. Whatever was going on here, he couldn't stop it, no matter how hard he tried...

The figure began crawling towards him. And he couldn't move, his legs wouldn't work –

With difficulty, Kageyama sat up, just before Hinata reached him. He could hardly see any orange amid the dark.

He pressed his back to the wall.

A hand reached toward his throat.

“Hinata,” he wheezed, taking hold of the wrist – which didn't slow it down at all. “This isn't you. Get me? You didn't want this.”

He couldn't hold him back anymore. The hand continued forward.

“Hinata, none of this is your fault,” he snapped. “If you wake the fuck up after this is over, at least figure _that_ much out, dumbass.”

He didn't want this to happen.

If he died, he didn't want to die knowing that Hinata would follow close behind.

He didn't want to leave Hinata alone.

Not for one second.

The hand closed over his throat.

“HINATA!” he roared, before he could choke off air again. “WAKE UP! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?”

And – the fingers loosened their hold. Kageyama could breathe. The smoke cleared a little.

“Yeah – there you go – ” Kageyama said. “Damn, you need to slow down and think about what you're doing sometimes, you know that?

“...Would you breathe or something?

“You're like the fucking sun. You can't just go dark like that.

“You can't lose it here. We need to get out. We need to find everybody and get out.

“...I mean, everyone else still has a chance. And that's what we need to think about.

“You're still here, and I'm still here, and _none of this is your fault._

“Do you fucking hear me?”

Hinata was completely frozen. The smoke kept fading. He could see his face now. The smile was gone, and there was a frown between his eyes.

He was _there_.

He removed his hand from Kageyama's neck, slowly, deliberately, like he couldn't remember how to control his muscles.

They both breathed easier.

Kageyama made eye contact and wouldn't look away.

“Do you hear me?” He asked.

Slowly, Hinata nodded. He bit his lip. His eyebrows tilted upwards.

The smoke was gone completely.

“Ka... Kageyama,” Hinata wavered, eyes filling up with tears, beginning to shiver. He hugged himself with both arms, tight. “I... _I_...”

“You're okay,” Kageyama mumbled. He looked away now, his face a little warm. “Don't do it again, dumb – ”

He stopped talking abruptly when Hinata burst into tears.

Hinata couldn't hold himself up anymore. He fell forward, and his head landed hard against Kageyama's chest.

“H-hey,” Kageyama held his arms out to the side, unsure of what to do.

“Kageyama,” Hinata sobbed quietly, positively _shivering_ now. “Kageyama... I... I'm...”

Kageyama looked down at him, in wonder. He was here, he was back... but he was still breaking up.

Kageyama had come so close to watching him die, just a minute or two ago.

Hinata still wasn't okay. His tears were soaking through the front of Kageyama's hoodie.

And he realized it _hurt_.

“...You're all right,” he said. He lifted his arms again and awkwardly wrapped them around Hinata.

Hinata cried harder.

“I... I tried to – ”

“But you didn't,” Kageyama said firmly. “Okay? You didn't. And that wasn't _you_ , either. Not really.”

“My neck,” Hinata wheezed. “What... what...”

Kageyama blinked. “You... don't remember what happened?”

“N-no... Last thing I remember... Narita – ”

Hinata interrupted himself, crying harder than ever. He clung to the front of Kageyama's hoodie, and buried his face deep.

He wasn't all the way there. He still wasn't all in one piece.

That was all this was. This closeness.

And it was better that he didn't remember. It would only scare him more.

Kageyama raised a hand, and hovered it over Hinata's head for a moment, hesitating.

He didn't want to admit it – even to himself – but seeing Hinata like this scared the shit out of him.

He dropped his hand into Hinata's hair. Slowly, awkwardly. The only way he was capable.

The puff of orange hair was softer than he'd expected. And warm. Warm, even in a dead, frozen place like this.

If Hinata noticed the touch, he didn't react. He moved a little closer, though, and maybe he cried a little quieter.

Kageyama wasn't really sure what to do. He patted the top of Hinata's head clumsily. Then he went back to just hugging him.

“Dumbass,” he mumbled, because he had to say something, and that was the first thing that came to mind. He held Hinata more tightly. “Dumbass...”

Gradually, Hinata began to relax. His sobs faded to occasional coughs. The front of Kageyama's hoodie had to be soaked through with tears.

Kageyama started touching Hinata's hair again without noticing. He felt his face go a little red, but Hinata didn't tell him to stop, so he kept it up.

“I'm sorry,” Hinata said in a small voice. He sniffled and pushed himself up to a sitting position, away from Kageyama. He kept his face low and scrubbed at his now-red eyes and nose with the back of his hand. “I'm sorry, Kageyama, I'm sorry...”

“There's nothing for you to be sorry for,” Kageyama mumbled. “You haven't done anything wrong.”

Hinata's mouth wobbled again. Something spasmed in Kageyama's chest.

“Hey, don't cry,” he said.

Hinata nodded and sniffled again. Kageyama realized that he looked exhausted. His eyelids drooped. He was pale.

This place was really taking a toll on him.

Kageyama wanted to stay here and let him rest. He didn't want to make Hinata move even one more step. He just wanted to stay. And – yeah, goddammit, he wanted to just hold him again.

But they had to keep going. The rest of the team was out there somewhere, and they had to find each other.

Kageyama stood up and looked down at him, carefully taking note of every sign of weakness. Could Hinata even do this anymore?

“Come on,” Kageyama said, extending a hand to him. “Let's head out.”

Slowly, Hinata reached up and took the hand. He didn't hold very tightly. His fingers were cold.

Kageyama pulled him up. He staggered around, and pressed his hand to the sides of his skull.

“Head hurts,” he managed. “'M dizzy.”

Of course. Kageyama eyed the wound on his forehead. He might have a concussion. Really, he should lie down.

“Okay,” he said. “Just a sec.”

He took a step back and pulled his hoodie off over his head. He offered it to Hinata, who just stared blankly at it.

“Put this on,” Kageyama said.

Hinata frowned.

“You're freezing cold,” Kageyama elaborated. “Put this on. You need to hold still for a while, and you need to stay warm.

“Put this on; I'm gonna carry you.”

“Carry... me?” Hinata asked, bewildered.

“Yes,” Kageyama said shortly, feeling his face get warm again. He turned around. “Get on.”

Hinata's hands, obscured by the too-long sleeves of the hoodie, rested on Kageyama's shoulders. Kageyama knelt a little bit and picked him up.

He weighed hardly anything at all, but he wasn't helping even a little. He was a dead weight on Kageyama's back. He had to spend a few moments getting him situated.

Hinata's head rested on his shoulder. His fluffy orange hair tickled his cheek.

“This okay?” Kageyama mumbled.

“Mmmh,” was the only response. Hinata pressed his face closer.

Kageyama felt his face go red again.

\- - -

As light as Hinata was, the act of carrying him soon became difficult. Kageyama was tired, and Hinata was asleep. He had to walk ridiculously slowly, careful not to trip.

Before long, he couldn't keep going anymore. He didn't want to stop, but...

He wandered in a haze for a little while, in a state hardly better than sleepwalking. There wasn't any point in keeping track of where they'd been anymore. He just had to carry Hinata, and keep going, keep going...

He blinked – and looked up.

There was a hole in the floor in ahead of them. The entire intersection was gone.

Kageyama couldn't bring himself to turn around and go back the other way. He stumbled over to the wall and knelt, carefully setting Hinata down on the floor, before sitting down himself.

He was so, so tired...

He leaned against the wall and pulled Hinata over, and let the smaller boy rest against his chest again. Hinata shifted a little, but didn't wake up. Kageyama eyed the wound on his forehead. It wasn't bleeding anymore, but it was really swollen. As soon as they got out of here, the first thing he would do was get Hinata to a hospital. He needed to ice it, right away.

He'd carry him all the way there.

Kageyama's ears suddenly picked something up – off to his left, across the gap. He snapped his head around and listened more carefully.

No, he hadn't been imagining it.

There it was again. The sound of footsteps.

Nearby. Someone was coming.

His heart started racing. Adrenaline stung his hands, his eyes, his tongue. Everything got sharper. He clung Hinata tighter against him, tangled his fingers up in that soft orange hair. Everything was on high alert.

And in that moment of insane, sudden panic, he found himself crying out.

“Hey – ” he said – voice snapping halfway through. “Help! We need help!”

Only as he said it did he remember Narita's killer. Paintbrushes through the eyes. He could _feel_ them; they were _there._

Sinking dread filled up his stomach.

The footsteps stopped.

_Oh, god, who is that_

He held his breath and closed his eyes and buried his face in Hinata's hair. He could feel tears coming on. He was shaking like crazy. He'd panicked. He'd let himself panic.

_Oh, shit, Hinata, I fucked up –_

_I'm sorry. I'm sorry._

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haaaahaha that was fun wasn't it
> 
> Daichi, Suga, and Tanaka are up next! We've only got six more chapters to go, guys. At most. There may still be a chapter I'll have to merge with another to make it long enough to be worth reading. I don't think so, but maybe. We're definitely looking at a max of fourteen chapters, is all I'm gonna say.
> 
> Then I gotta decide what I'm gonna write next my goodness
> 
> Thanks for all the positivity, as always! <3 big thanks to those who have said hello on Tumblr, too. Y'all are so sweet. I got this one super-shy anon. Just. Lemme hug you.
> 
> See you later! No idea when the next one will get done. Keep an eye on the update tag for an eventual ETA.


	9. Desensitized [DaiSuga + Tanaka]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh god you're going to hate me probably

“Daichi.”

He kept walking – storming, really. His eyes darted back and forth across the hall ceaselessly. He rattled the doorknobs of the doors he passed, but they were all either jammed or locked

“ _Daichi_.”

Suga's voice was becoming desperate. He and Tanaka were running, nearly, just trying to keep up.

Daichi couldn't stop, thought. They'd traveled through so many halls. They hadn't found anybody. Nothing but corpses – far too many, far too small.

They had to be somewhere. Alive or dead, they were _in here._

He was supposed to look after them all. They were his charges while they were at practice.

He couldn't fail them like this. If a single one of them died because he hadn't gotten to them fast enough...

A pair of arms wrapped around him from behind, and held tight. He tried to keep moving, but Suga dug in his heels.

“Daichi,” he said – and his voice broke.

Daichi blinked.

Suga buried his face in Daichi's shoulder. He squeezed him.

“ _Stop_ ,” he wavered. “Daichi... _Please_ stop... Please stop running...”

“We can't,” he replied simply. “I told you that already.”

Suga was quiet for a moment. He tightened his arms around Daichi's chest.

“You're scaring me,” Suga barely breathed. “Please just slow down a little. Tanaka's freaking out, too – he can't take much more of this, I can tell.

“You need to keep your head in here. Please. Let's stop for a little while...”

Daichi closed his eyes. He let himself breathe, and listened to his own heartbeat. The world around him was still.

He fought to keep his thoughts in order. He focused on Suga's warmth, and the arms holding him tight.

He reached up and took tight hold of Suga's hand.

He took a deep breath. The fog went away a little.

“Okay,” he finally managed. He let his breath out slowly and rubbed Suga's knuckles with his thumb. “Okay. We'll rest a little while.”

He felt Suga relax.

Suga let go of him and took his hand. Daichi looked back to Tanaka. He didn't look like he was holding up very well, Daichi now realized. He was pale as a sheet, and shaking almost visibly.

That in itself was terrifying. Tanaka wasn't supposed to be somebody to crumble. Sure, stuff got to him sometimes, but he always found a way to bounce right back.

They needed to find Noya. Soon.

 _Alive,_ he added silently. A chill fell down his back.

He had never thought that would be a concern.

\- - -

The first room they found unlocked was the one Suga pulled them into to rest. It was almost completely dark in there, save for the light of a single guttering candle on a desk, whose flame had nearly vanished into its holder. The vague light illuminated a few things on the surface of the desk, but Daichi didn't pay attention to them.

It was a library, but not like any elementary school library Daichi had ever seen before. The shelves were tall, reaching almost to the ceiling. They were stuffed full of thick volumes. Not a children's book in sight.

It was oddly unsettling.

Suga pulled Daichi along and sat him down beside one of the shelves.

“Lie down,” he instructed. The smile was back on his face, mask or otherwise.

Either way, Daichi would have to work harder to keep his head.

He needed that smile.

He lay down in front of the shelf. Tanaka collapsed, almost asleep already, back-to-back with Daichi.

Daichi nudged him, looking over his shoulder. “Hanging in there, Tanaka?”

Tanaka nodded, mouth closed tight. He might as well have said 'no'.

Suga laid down too, and nestled close to Daichi. They took each others' hands.

They didn't say anything at all for a little while. Tanaka must have been exhausted, because he fell asleep almost immediately. He wasn't all the way asleep, though, Daichi noticed. When Tanaka was actually asleep, he snored like a chainsaw. Now he was completely silent and still. Daichi glanced in his direction, and frowned.

“He'll be okay,” Suga said quietly. “Once we get out of here, he'll be back to his usual asshole self.”

“I hope you're right,” Daichi murmured. “Noya had better be okay.”

“He will be. And so will everyone else. All our kids,” Suga reassured him. He rested his head against Daichi's chest. “But I say we just take everyone out to dinner instead of practice tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Daichi said. “Yeah.”

Suga kissed his cheek. “Get some sleep, okay? You look really tired.”

Daichi was indeed feeling very, very tired all of a sudden. He could hardly keep his eyes open. Even the floor seemed soft enough to sleep on...

Suga placed his hand on Daichi's cheek and ran his thumb below one of his drooping eyes. He moved close and pressed their foreheads together.

Daichi sighed. “I love you,” he breathed.

“I know,” Suga replied, laughing a little, gently. “Sleep.”

Daichi had the vague impression of moving to kiss him, but he wasn't sure. He was too tired to keep his eyes open, and he was warm, even in here, with Suga so close.

Nothing seemed urgent anymore.

He drifted off quickly.

\- - -

Suga let Daichi sleep for a few minutes before he rolled away from him. He didn't need to worry about waking him. Once Daichi was asleep, there was almost no way to wake him up until he wanted to be woken. Suga had had to resort to using cold water on more than one occasion.

He looked down at Daichi and Tanaka for a moment, making sure he hadn't disturbed them.

Then he walked over to the desk in front, as quietly as possible.

He hadn't wanted to make a big deal out of it when they came in; it would only have kept Daichi awake.

There was a notebook on the desk open to one of the back pages. There was something scrawled on it, almost completely obscured by something... dark. Dark and red.

He tried not to think too hard about what it could be as he deciphered the words.

There weren't many. As far as he could tell, there were only three, scratched in frantic, spiky letters.

_tongue – music room_

Suga frowned, and a shiver shook his whole body. He had no idea what that meant, but he didn't want to think about it anymore...

He flipped through the other pages of the notebook briefly. He didn't read anything too carefully, but he realized quickly that there was a wealth of information about this place inside it. He'd have to look more closely later.

For now, he turned his attention to the other thing on the desk – a good-sized purple crystal, sitting on top of a folded piece of paper. He picked the crystal up, and immediately felt... calmer. Something about it made him feel safe.

He picked up the paper and unfolded it. He found something written there, in the same neat script he'd seen in the notebook.

_They're scared of this_

Suga's mind brought forth an image of the ghost girl they'd seen earlier. That had to be what it meant, right? There wasn't anything else in here that would be scared of it. It had a reassuring sort of air around it. It must be a good thing...

Suga hefted the crystal in his palm and looked over at Daichi's sleeping form. Without even thinking about it, he crept over and slipped the stone into his boyfriend's pocket.

He needed help more than Suga. If Daichi could hang on, the others could too.

For a minute, Suga felt all right. They could make it out of here.

The candle on the desk drowned in its own melted wax and sputtered out. Suga was left in total darkness. He held his breath for a moment, heart suddenly hammering in his ribs.

His fingers were freezing. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled unpleasantly.

Slowly, he turned around and looked at the door.

There wasn't anything there. But it felt like there was. He felt like he was standing in front of a crowd, and they were all watching, expecting him to do something.

He wasn't alone. No matter which way he turned, something was looking at him.

Tanaka shuffled in his sleep, startling Suga almost out of his skin. He hadn't realized that he'd been holding his breath, but now he let it out in a gust.

The illusion was gone. Suga was alone again. He looked down at Tanaka and Daichi again, making sure they were still there.

He smiled. _See?_ He chided himself. _You're okay. Everyone's okay. You're all going to be okay._

He looked at Daichi's sleeping face. He still frowned, even though he was completely relaxed.

As hard as he might try, he could never keep anything from Suga. He just couldn't. Suga could read him too well.

There was a sound behind him – and this time, he definitely didn't imagine it. He froze again, and listened intently.

It was quiet. Subtle. If it hadn't been so deafeningly silent in here, Suga wouldn't have noticed it at all.

And then – from out in the hallway, quiet and shivering – Suga heard somebody crying.

His heart leapt into his throat. Without thinking for even a second, he hurried out of the library.

The crying was coming from off to his left. A small voice – one he knew – Hinata's, or Yamaguchi's –

“ _Tsukki_ ,” he heard, as he drew closer. “ _Tsukki... where are you?_ ”

“Yamaguchi!” Suga called out, speeding up, eyes frantically scanning the darkness before him for any sign of the freckle-faced boy. “Yamaguchi! It's Suga! Calm down, okay?”

There was no response. The crying and sniffling continued. Suga was getting closer – he could hear Yamaguchi, loud and clear, but he couldn't see him yet...

...And then he'd passed the source of the sound completely.

Puzzled, he stopped, listened again, and backtracked a few steps.

There was silence for a moment, and then the crying started again.

Suga's eyes shifted to the spot from which it should have been coming.

There wasn't anything to be found. Just a blank stretch of wall and floor.

Suga should have been right in front of Yamaguchi. But there was nothing.

“...Yamaguchi?” he tried again, unable to keep a tremor out of his voice. “Can you... hear me?”

The sobs didn't falter once. Yamaguchi... wasn't there. Suga could hear him – but –

Suga's heart was sprinting again. He was sweating, but freezing cold. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the _nothing_ before him.

_What... What...?_

He could feel his brain fizzling out. It was awash with confusion – nothing but static, synapses sparking without receiving answers.

He closed his eyes and covered his ears. He just needed to breathe. He needed to breathe, and get back to Daichi, and forget about this – and find Yamaguchi, wherever he was.

He didn't have an explanation for this. Only cold, paralyzing panic.

The crying persisted. And it pained him when he turned away, eyes still closed, and began moving back towards the library.

He hadn't gone far when the strongest chill yet forced him to a stop.

It was like the muscles in his legs were frozen solid.

A deep sense of dread filled him up.

_He didn't want to open his eyes._

There was something in front of him. He could _feel_ it. Something dangerous. There was no other way to describe the feeling in his gut now; he was in danger.

 _Run,_ he screamed at himself. _Turn around and RUN!_

But he couldn't. He couldn't move. He could hardly breathe.

_You have to get back to Daichi. Daichi and Tanaka and the rest of the kids. They need you._

_What have you told them a thousand times?_

_It's all going to be –_

The sound that interrupted his thoughts was the most bloodcurdling thing he'd ever heard. Gurgling, popping, guttural – like somebody was drowning, right in front of him.

He couldn't help it. His eyes flew open and he stared, completely dumbfounded, more terrified than he'd ever thought possible.

The ghost of a young girl stood before him. But it wasn't the one they'd seen before.

This one, far from missing merely an eye, was missing the entire upper half of her skull.

Suga could see straight down her gaping-open throat. Her tongue was gone, and the remaining stub of it was neatly cut, as though with scissors. There was blood all over her insubstantial blue form.

Suga wanted to scream. But he couldn't. He was just... _stuck_. The only sense that was working was sight. They only parts of his body that functioned were his eyes.

The headless girl drew closer, making a disgusting sound that nearly passed for a perverse laugh.

She rose up into the air, slowly, until the spot where her eyes should have been was level with Suga's line of vision.

She extended her hand towards him, and his body went limp, but now he couldn't even fall.

He was powerless to stop her.

\- - -

The scream woke Daichi so fast that he stood up before he'd even opened his eyes.

“Wassat?” Tanaka slurred, sitting up abruptly.

Daichi whirled around, desperate, because he already knew what was missing.

“SUGA!” he roared. “SUGA! _WHERE ARE YOU?_ ”

Nothing. No answer. The candle was out, and Suga was gone.

Daichi sprinted to the door and looked out. He couldn't see anything, but –

Another scream. Daichi's heart stopped.

“Daichi – what's – ?”

“Come on, Tanaka!” he shot over his shoulder – and then he dashed out into the hall, as fast as he could, not even bothering to make sure Tanaka was keeping up.

_Suga. Suga. Suga._

_Suga, if that's you screaming..._

_No. Shut up. It's not. It's not..._

That scream was _agonized._ That scream was like no sound Daichi had ever head a human being make.

He sped up, the sounds growing louder all the time.

It wasn't Suga. It wasn't his Suga. Because it couldn't be. It couldn't be...

It was coming from a room just to the right, ahead of him.

He didn't think at all before he went charging straight in.

What he saw there... well, quite simply, he _couldn't_ be seeing it.

Suga was lying there, on the floor, with a glowing blue figure kneeling beside him. His fists were clenched. His eyes were wide – his mouth was open and screaming.

And Daichi wouldn't let himself see the blood until the ghost girl plunged her arm, nearly elbow-deep, into Suga's belly again.

“ _SUGA!_ ” he bellowed, leaping forward – only to be thrown back. He fell to the ground, hit his head on something, and lay there for a moment, stunned.

Tears poured from Suga's eyes. He couldn't move. Daichi felt every ounce of his pain as his own, screaming himself now, trying desperately to crawl towards him –

Suga's entire body lurched as the ghostly hand came out in a fist – pulling something _out_ of him. Something that didn't give right away. She tugged at it a few times.

And now Suga couldn't scream loud enough, so he didn't scream at all.

Daichi hauled himself up and tried to charge forward again, but Tanaka was there, suddenly, throwing himself on top of Daichi, yelling at him to stop, _please_ , stop –

He had to get her away from him – if he could throw something – if he could just _get her away –_

There was something in Daichi's pocket, pressing against his leg. It shook violently, and seemed to hum a little – he had no idea what it was, but –

Desperate, out of options, reaching for something, _anything_ , to do, Daichi reached into his pocket, wrenched whatever it was out, and flung it as hard as he could at the headless ghost girl.

The glowing purple crystal hit her square in the chest, and shattered into pieces with the force of a small bomb.

She screamed – a gurgling, sickening, _deafening_ shriek – and let go of Suga, speeding away.

Daichi didn't wait for her to be gone before he rolled Tanaka off of his back and crawled towards Suga's shuddering form.

There was blood all over. Daichi got it on his knees. He reached for Suga's hand and felt relieved when Suga squeezed his fingers.

His face was dead white. His eyes were full of tears, staring at nothing. He shook so violently that he almost couldn't keep hold of Daichi's hand.

And Daichi couldn't breathe. The space between heartbeats had to be counted in hours.

Clumsily, he moved to cradle Suga's head in his hands. Suga groaned a little, but then relaxed.

“... _Kou,_ ” Daichi wavered, eyes brimming with tears, cold agony all through. “ _Kou..._ ”

Suga's eyes snapped on to his and wouldn't look away. He opened his mouth to speak, but only blood came out. He coughed, and closed his eyes gain, in too much pain to move.

“Kou, I... no... _no, please, no..._ ” Daichi stroked Suga's sweat-soaked gray hair away from his eyes, at a complete loss.

Suga gritted his teeth, braced himself, and tried again.

“Th... notebook,” he croaked. “...desk... notebook...”

“Notebook? What?”

“...Back... library – look – note – ”

Suga couldn't go on. His eyes closed in pain once again.

Daichi broke down. He pressed his lips to Suga's forehead and let the tears fall.

“Kou... I'm sorry, _I'm so sorry, I –_

“...I should have gotten here faster...”

“It's... okay,” Suga managed. “D...Daichi, don't – ”

Daichi couldn't hear him anymore. He couldn't hear, or feel, or even hardly see. He was falling, from the inside out, into nothing. All of it was sharp-edged and dark, so harsh he couldn't possibly be capable of surviving it.

“...Koushi,” he whimpered. “I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry...”

“Find... the... get the... the kids – home – get – hurry...”

Suga's voice was hardly a breath. His grip on Daichi's fingers loosened severely.

“KOU!” he cried, panicking. “Hang on! _Please_ hang on – you'll be okay – you'll – ”

“...Love... you,” Suga smiled through the blood. “Look at – look at me.”

Daichi raised his head, biting his lip hard to hold himself back from sobbing.

Suga's face was composed, but Daichi could still see the pain in the slight frown of his brow. He even smiled, just a little.

With unbelievable strength, he raised a hand and cupped it over Daichi's cheek.

“I love you,” he said, blinking out more tears. “I... love you... so much.”

“I love you too,” Daichi choked. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, _I'm sorry..._ ”

“It's... okay,” Suga said. “Don't... cry, please, Daichi...”

His eyes – those beautiful, gold-brown eyes – were fading out. He smiled, but it _hurt_ . He was in pain, he was _dying_ , right here in Daichi's arms, and still he was looking out for everybody but himself.

“Find the kids,” he wheezed, so quietly that even Daichi, so close, could hardly hear him. “Get them home.”

“I will,” Daichi said – crying now. “I will, Kou. I promise. I'll get them all home.”

There was a hole in Daichi's chest. He couldn't feel anything but Kou. Once he was gone, what would even be left?

He listened to Kou's breathing. There were so many things – a lifetime's worth of words – that he wanted to say. There was an entire future he'd wanted for the two of them – but it was falling apart now, and bleeding away. Bleeding away far too _slowly._

Was that the work of this school, as well? Making Kou suffer more than he had to, more than he'd ever deserve? There were pieces of him _missing. Why_ was he _still_ not allowed to rest?

But Daichi said nothing. There just wasn't time for anything but _please, no, please..._

Kou's entire body convulsed suddenly – and blood spilled from his mouth and nose.

Daichi's stomach lurched.

Kou stared in wide-eyed panic at _nothing_ as more and more blood poured out. He took hold of Daichi's hand tighter than ever, trying and failing to breathe.

_And all Daichi could do was watch._

The spasms subsided. Daichi kissed Kou's forehead.

“It'll be okay,” he wavered, biting his lip, trembling.

Kou's hand gripped the front of his shirt. Daichi leaned close again, kissed him again, and closed his eyes.

“I promise I'll keep them all safe...”

\- - -

It felt like Tanaka sat there watching for weeks. He was frozen and _sick_ – he couldn't even bring himself to get close, and he hated that, but...

It was too much. It just couldn't be real. Suga couldn't be... he just... _couldn't_.

This all just had to be a terrible dream. It didn't feel real, not at all. It couldn't be real. It was just too terrible to be real.

Tanaka wanted to vomit. The room smelled like death.

For days he could only watch as Daichi clung on and cried and spoke muddled, incomprehensible words. He wanted to do _something_ to calm him – but what was there to do?

But then – even worse was when Daichi stopped crying. It was gradual, but it happened – and as it did, Daichi loosened his hold on Suga's body, and sat up.

Tanaka could see the gaping hole in his stomach, now, and his once-lively eyes frozen wide. He couldn't look too long, but he couldn't look away.

He'd never laugh again. He'd never smile again.

And once the rest of the team found out – would they be able to, either?

Daichi had stopped crying entirely. Suga lay motionless in his lap. Daichi wasn't looking at him anymore, but rather gazing blankly at the opposite wall. Tanaka couldn't see his face, but his posture was... relaxed.

That terrified him more than anything else so far.

When Daichi spoke, he sounded tired, but calm.

“Tanaka,” he said.

“Wh-what?” Tanaka stammered.

“He said something about a notebook,” Daichi went on. “In the library. Did you see one? On the desk, I think.”

For a minute, Tanaka couldn't say a word. Daichi's voice was too steady. He was being too businesslike. As though he'd just sat through a very boring meeting, instead of –

Tanaka could feel something starting to go. Oh, god, he was going to lose it in here, wasn't he?

“Tanaka,” Daichi repeated.

“A-ah, I – no, I... didn't see a notebook,” he managed. “I didn't... no.”

“Well, we'll just have to go back and look for it, I guess.”

Daichi carefully moved Suga's head from his lap and stood up. Tanaka stared at him, wary.

Daichi turned on his heel and began moving toward the door. There was blood all over him.

But his face was composed – or maybe more dead than composed. Tanaka couldn't see any life left in his eyes.

“Come on, Tanaka,” he said, dully. “We have to find the others.”

There wasn't anything Tanaka could do.

With one last look at Suga's lifeless body, Tanaka stood up and followed Daichi blindly from the room.

It didn't seem right to leave him here, but... what else could they do?

\- - -

Daichi immediately found the notebook and read through it quickly – robotically, even. His expression didn't change once. Tanaka stayed a little way away from him the whole time, not sure what to do.

Daichi opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out an ancient plush cat. Tanaka looked from him to it and back again, nonplussed.

Daichi squinted at the pages and then nodded and set the book down.

“We need to appease them to get out,” he said. “To appease them, we need their tongues. One of them needs this cat.”

Tanaka was afraid to ask what he was talking about.

“One of them's in the music room,” he said. “That's where we need to go next. Then we need to focus on getting everyone else together.”

Finally, he acknowledged that Tanaka was there. He turned and looked at him, but it seemed like he was staring straight through him.

“We're going to find Noya, Tanaka,” he said. “And Hinata. Kageyama. Tsukishima. Yamaguchi. Narita. Kinoshita. Ennoshita. Asahi.”

Tanaka gulped, and nodded.

“I'll get every single one of you home,” Daichi said. “Don't worry.”

With that, led the way out of the room. Tanaka could hardly move his legs anymore, but still he hurried to catch up.

\- - -

They walked in silence. Daichi moved too fast for Tanaka to keep up, and he didn't think he should get too close, anyway.

Tanaka couldn't comprehend what was going on. It hurt to think. He kept expecting Suga to say something to ease the tension. And then he'd remember, though hadn't forgotten, and he'd feel like throwing up again.

He had no idea where they were going. All he could do was follow the ghost of his captain through the deadly-silent halls of this school, and hope, perhaps uselessly, that they would make it out alive.

He hoped Yuu was okay...

A voice suddenly rang out before them – and it stopped them dead in their tracks. Tanaka didn't even immediately register what it was saying, it scared him so bad.

But it went on, so he listened more closely.

“ _Help! We need help!_ ”

“...Is that Kageyama?” he breathed.

Daichi nodded. Tanaka followed him as he hurried forward, half-relieved, half-terrified.

He'd never heard Kageyama sound _scared_ before.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to say 'sorry not sorry' but mostly I'm just very very sorry.
> 
> But hey it was only a matter of time right you can't just have a Corpse Party fic with a body count of only TWO can you haa nope
> 
> Yeah that one hurt to write. For more than one reason. My carpal tunnel nerve is not liking all this typing. That's why it always takes like five hours from the time that I announce that I'm typing to the time the update actually goes up.
> 
> Anyway. Next chapter... no idea. I'll start work on it once I've eaten something and had a little tea.
> 
> There should be only **FIVE** more parts to go. 
> 
> As for works after this one... hm. I've actually got a small idea that I haven't actually worked through or even really thought out at all - it could potentially become something. I don't know. We'll have to see. Whatever it is, it'll likely take a while.
> 
> Please don't hate me too much. :o I love you


	10. Little White Lies [TsukiYama + Ennoshita]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ohoho if I didn't kill you with the last one you will probably not have a high opinion of me now I am disturbing so many facets of this fandom

“So,” Ennoshita said, as they reached the top of the stairs, “This hallway splits in two up here – and I know splitting up is probably a bad idea, but I won't be far, okay?”

“Should we go that way?” Tsukishima nodded to the right.

“Sure – might as well,” Ennoshita shrugged. “Oh – and, before I forget – ”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the tongue bag. “You take this,” he said. “If you run into Ryo – the little boy ghost – hold this up and show it to him. Don't look him in the eye, though. Remember.”

“...All right,” Tsukishima said, and took the little bag. He put it into his pocket as quickly as he could; he wanted to handle the thing as little as possible.

“What about you?” Yamaguchi squeaked. “What will you do if you run into a ghost?”

“I have this,” Ennoshita said, and produced a small flask from his other pocket. “It's holy water. It'll scare them off, buy me enough time to get back to you guys.

“Okay. So,” Ennoshita went on, “Look for a little bag, like that one. You have a phone, or a watch, or something to keep time with?”

“Yeah,” Tsukishima replied.

“Great. Then, meet back here in half an hour. Good?”

“All right.”

With that, they went their separate ways. Yamaguchi held even tighter to Tsukishima's arm.

“...I don't like this, Tsukki,” he said quietly. “I don't like this at all.”

“It's going to be fine,” Tsukishima said. “How many times to I have to tell you?”

\- - -

It was clear that Tsukki didn't want to talk anymore, so Yamaguchi didn't say much from then on. It was hard, though. He really was scared... but he shouldn't be, because Tsukki wasn't.

He let his mind become fully occupied with thoughts of Tsukki; that usually helped him calm down. Tsukki never talked all that much, anyway. It had never been the things he said; it was always in the things he did. From the time they were kids – with Tsukki saving him from mean kids, almost every day, it seemed – right up to the other day, when he'd let Yamaguchi borrow his hoodie after practice, when it was raining and he didn't have one – and then 'forgotten' to take it back.

He still hadn't asked for it back. So Yamaguchi held onto it for him. And maybe he wore it from time to time. Never to school. That would be embarrassing.

It was warmer than any of his other hoodies, anyway.

Oh, god, it was cold in here...

“Yamaguchi,” Tsukki said.

“Hm?” Yamaguchi started a little. He'd been spacing out.

“Help be look. You've been just standing in the doorway for five minutes.”

Yamaguchi blinked. “Sorry, Tsukki,” he said, moving forward into the room.

This one, like most of the others they'd seen, was a classroom, and mostly empty. The only furniture was the desks and a few cabinets. Tsukki was already done searching the first row of desks, and was starting on the second.

Yamaguchi shook his head vigorously and hurried to start on the third row.

He lifted the top of the desk. It was completely empty.

That certainly made things easier.

He closed the desk and quickly moved on to the next one. This one didn't have anything inside, either.

Before too long, the two of them had checked them all. Nothing. Nothing in any of them.

Something sank in the pit of Yamaguchi's stomach. He could feel the place closing in all around him. Dread filled him up.

_No, don't freak out. If Tsukki's okay, then you're okay. If he isn't worried, then you don't need to be, either._

But he couldn't  _help it._ He just  _couldn't._ He didn't have Tsukki's strength; he just  _didn't_ . Maybe he wasn't as smart as Tsukki, but he thought just as much, and sometimes he just  _couldn't stop._

His brain was whirring with possibilities, each of them growing more and more terrifying until he could hardly breathe.

“ _Yamaguchi._ ”

He almost jumped out of his skin – and he let out a startled yelp. He hadn't noticed Tsukki moving, but there he was, all of a sudden, right in front of him.

“Tsukki,” he said, his voice thin. “Sorry. Sorry, I – ” 

“You go sit down,” Tsukki said. “Sit down by the door and take a rest. I'll finish looking in these cupboards, and then we'll move on.”

“Okay,” Yamaguchi said, but he didn't move.

Tsukki sighed, exasperated, and took hold of his upper arm. Yamaguchi almost fell over several times as Tsukki pulled him over to the door. He hadn't realized how badly his knees were shaking until he had to move them.

“Stay there,” Tsukki said, lowering him down slowly. “I'll just be a minute.”

Yamaguchi did his best to focus only on Tsukki as he walked away. Maybe it would help...

Tsukki had held his hand earlier. Yamaguchi hadn't even really meant for it to happen at the start. He'd just gotten startled, and he'd reached out without thinking.

He'd expected Tsukki to get mad – to shake him off, at the very least. That was why he hadn't ever tried it before, despite wanting to.

But he hadn't made him let go. He'd let Yamaguchi hold on.

_Tsukki never gets scared._

A loud crashing sound – followed by hushed swearing – shattered Yamaguchi's frenzied calm. Tsukki stumbled backwards, away from the thrown-open doors of the cabinet, clutching at his left wrist.

“Tsukki!” Yamaguchi squeaked, leaping to his feet. “Are you okay?”

There were sharp metal things on the floor all around Tsukki's feet. The cabinet must have been full of them.

Yamaguchi started to move towards him, but Tsukki looked over his shoulder and snapped, “I told you to stay sitting.”

Yamaguchi stopped, but didn't go back to sit down. “Are you okay?” he repeated.

“I'm fine,” Tsukki grumbled in reply. “It's just my hand.

“Anyway – there's nothing in here. We should try the next room.”

He tried to keep his injured hand out of sight as he made his way over, but Yamaguchi immediately grabbed his arm and tugged it into the open.

Tsukki's left palm was all cut up, bleeding so much that it dripped.

Yamaguchi wasn't squeamish about blood, normally, but... this was Tsukki's blood, dripping onto his skin. He suddenly felt very, very dizzy.

“Lemme... Lemme fix it,” he wavered.

“How do you think you're going to fix that?” Tsukki scoffed, pulling his hand away. “It's fine. I'll just keep my hand closed.”

Yamaguchi stared at the drop of Tsukki's blood on his palm. He was shivering.

He felt something on the top of his head and flinched – but it was just Tsukki's other hand, ruffling his hair.

“Stop panicking,” he said quietly as he moved past. “Let's go.”

\- - -

Tsukishima regretted not having been more careful. He kept wiping his hand on his shorts to hide how much it was bleeding. Yamaguchi held tight to the other one, so tight that he could hardly feel his fingers.

He was glad for it, though. It was a reminder that Yamaguchi was still there.

Tsukishima had screwed up. He'd scared him. Again.

But it wasn't irreparable. He hadn't lost him. He could still walk. He would still make it. Tsukishima could still get him out of this place.

The paper scraps were the ticket out.

As long as Yamaguchi kept his safe, he'd be fine.

“Yamaguchi,” he said.

“Hmm?”

“You still have your scrap of the doll, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me see it.”

Clumsily, Yamaguchi pulled a thumbnail-sized scrap of paper from his pocket and held it up.

Tsukishima nodded. “Hold on to that. Keep it safe.”

“...Yeah,” Yamaguchi wavered. “I will.”

Had he made it too obvious? Yamaguchi wasn't stupid. Tsukishima had given him enough that he could probably guess...

“...Tsukki – ”

“Ennoshita said to meet him ten minutes from now,” Tsukishima interrupted, pulling him onwards. “We should look through one more room before we head back.”

Yamaguchi was quiet for a moment. Tsukishima prayed that he wouldn't press the point.

“...Okay, Tsukki,” he finally said.

Tsukishima felt a certain measure of relief. Yamaguchi wouldn't force conversation anymore if it was obvious that Tsukishima didn't want it.

He just couldn't bring it up again, now.

\- - -

Tsukishima was having difficulty opening the final cabinet; he didn't want to reopen the wound on his hand.

“Tsukki – let me help,” Yamaguchi said.

“I'm fine.”

“ _Let me help you._ ”

Tsukishima looked down at Yamaguchi. He was pale; his eyes were wide and dull; he clung to the back of Tsukishima's shirt; and still, he shivered.

Maybe giving him something to do would help keep him sane.

“Fine,” Tsukishima said, stepping aside. “Be careful. I don't know what's in there.”

Yamaguchi's hands shivered so badly he almost couldn't open the latch himself. He did manage it eventually, however. When he finally opened it, they found that there was absolutely nothing inside.

Yamaguchi took a step back and stared, blankly, at the empty shelves. Tsukishima watched him with apprehension.

Both of them were quiet for a second, and then Yamaguchi's legs folded beneath him.

“Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima exclaimed, hurriedly kneeling beside him. “What's wrong?”

“...We're never going to find it,” Yamaguchi said, his voice flat. “Are we.”

There was no expression on his face whatsoever. He was starting to lose it. Despite all of Tsukishima's efforts, Yamaguchi was beginning to slip.

“We are,” he said. “I said that already.”

“...But... How are we gonna...” he broke off, and started again. “This place is huge. How are we supposed to find anything in here? We don't even know where everybody else is! It could be anywhere! A little thing, in a place like this? It could have fallen through the floor, or something, and then we'd never ever find it!”

He lowered his head and pulled his knees up to his chest.

“...What if we die in here, Tsukki?” he whimpered – and he began to shake madly again. “What if we – ”

“ _I said that already,_ ” Tsukishima snapped – so suddenly that he startled them both. He took a breath to compose himself, and then began again.

“I already said I'd get you out of here, didn't I?” he demanded. “Didn't I? You remember me saying that?”

“Yes, but – ”

“ _Yamaguchi_ ,” Tsukishima interrupted again, grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him so they looked each other in the eye.

Stunned, Yamaguchi could only stare back.

“...Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima said, fiercely determined. “Have I ever – in the entire time I've known you – lied to you?”

“No,” Yamaguchi replied. “No... you haven't.”

“Then what makes you think I'd start here – in a place like this?”

Yamaguchi blinked.

“I said I'll keep you safe, and I mean I will keep you safe. I'll get you out of here.” Tsukishima moved his hands to either side of Yamaguchi's face. “Got me?”

Yamaguchi nodded. Tsukishima did the same, and then stood up.

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi said, after a second.

“What?”

Yamaguchi looked up at him, eyebrows set in a frown.

“...And you'll get yourself out, too,” he said.

Tsukishima's heart stopped.

The paper scraps. The things he'd said earlier.

There was too much knowing in those eyes.

“...Yeah,” Tsukishima had to say. “Yeah. Of course.”

“I don't want... to leave without you,” he said in a small voice. “Tsukki, I... I would never want to go back without you.”

“You won't,” Tsukishima replied, his heart aching. “Don't worry, you – ”

He was interrupted by the sound of someone colliding hard with the doorframe. He whirled around to look, and saw that it was Ennoshita.

He was pale, wide-eyed, leaning against the door heavily – frowning.

“Ennoshita,” Tsukishima said, as Yamaguchi leapt to his feet. “What – ”

“ _Get out of here_ ,” Ennoshita's voice was brittle. “God – _just run._ ”

Tsukishima glanced down – and saw that Ennoshita's right leg was bent at an unnatural angle. Bruises and blood covered a place halfway up his shin. Tsukishima wasn't sure how he could bear to stand on it.

Before Tsukishima could say anything about it, however, Ennoshita had pulled the leg out of view.

“ _Run_ ,” he panted, face drawn in obvious torment. “ _Please._ What I did won't hold him off for long – ”

From down the hall, there came a terrible shrieking roar that chilled Tsukishima to the bone. Ennoshita sagged against the doorframe and spoke again, more urgently, head bowed.

“Tokiko's – it's in the music room,” he grunted. “Down the hall. The way I came. Just... go, okay?”

“Go?” Yamaguchi wavered, dumbfounded. “Where – ?”

“ _Away from here_ ,” Ennoshita wheezed. His eyes closed and Tsukishima could see the pain in his face as plain as day. “I'll... stay back. You run, I'll stay here.”

“Ennoshita, _no_ ,” Yamaguchi whimpered. “No... we... we _can't_ – ”

“We'll carry you,” Tsukishima said.

“I'll only slow you down!” Ennoshita cried – and now tears were visible in his eyes, even as he fought so hard to be brave. Somewhere, there was a rough tearing sound, like a tree falling over. The whole place seemed to shake.

“Look – my leg's done,” he choked, forcing a smile, looking up at them. “I can't run. I can hardly stand. You guys have a chance. _You guys have a chance to be safe._ I'll buy you as much time as I – ”

Enormous, thundering footsteps – still far away, but not far _enough_ away. Yamaguchi clung to Tsukishima's hand.

Ennoshita slipped a little, and cried out as his leg took some of his weight. The shock was wearing off now. In another minute or two, he wouldn't be able to stand.

He raised his head again and looked Tsukishima in the eye with all the strength he could muster.

“Get yourselves out of here,” he said. “Go!”

Tsukishima didn't hesitate any longer. He darted forward, pulling Yamaguchi along, ignoring his shouts of protest as they ran past Ennoshita.

Tsukishima hadn't wanted to do it. But there wasn't time, and Ennoshita couldn't _move._

I was terrible – but it was the best course of action they could take.

\- - -

Ennoshita pushed himself off from the doorframe as the other two hurried away. He clenched his fists and his teeth to help him bear the freezing fire in his leg.

His shinbone was broken. Shattered, really. It hadn't offered much resistance to the giant head of that hammer.

Maybe it was miraculous that it hadn't come off entirely.

Even now – absurdly – he found himself thinking about how long it would take to heal, how long it would take before he could get back on the volleyball court.

He wanted to laugh at how stupid that was. But instead all he could do was cry.

 _Stop that_ , he chided himself as the tears fell. _That's no good now._

He could hear the man with the hammer getting closer. He couldn't see him yet, through all the gloom, but he knew it wouldn't be long. He was fast. Sprinting, Ennoshita had outrun him long enough to tell his underclassmen to run. Now he couldn't move at all.

His heart was surprisingly slow. He was sweating and his hands were shaking, but all things considered, he was holding himself steady.

He hoped for the rest of the team. His friends – Narita, Kinoshita – he hoped they'd make it okay.

He couldn't get away himself. But at least Tsukishima and Yamaguchi would be okay now.

_They got away. They know where Tokiko's tongue is. Now there's just one left to find._

_You weren't going to get out anyway, remember?_

_At least you finally made yourself useful._

He choked on tears again as the silhouette of the man with the hammer faded into view.

This was it.

This was really how it ended for him.

This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair...

He wanted to scream. Scream and cry and break things because it just _was not fair that he wouldn't get to live._

But he forced himself to stay quiet, even as the monster drew closer.

If he screamed, he'd only scare them.

\- - -

It was Tsukishima's fault, really. He shouldn't have run so fast. Not when Yamaguchi was so upset.

It was his fault that Yamaguchi fell.

He fell suddenly, with a yelp. His hand was wrenched away from Tsukishima's.

Tsukishima almost fell over, too, he stopped so quickly. He stumbled back to Yamaguchi and put out a hand to help him up.

Yamaguchi didn't take it. He looked up at Tsukishima with and expression filled with pain.

“Tsukki,” he croaked. “My... my foot...”

His foot was lodged in a small hole in the floorboards, Tsukishima now noticed. His ankle was twisted, almost halfway around, and the edge of the wood had jammed its way into the top of his foot.

Tsukishima rushed to help. It took so much more effort than it should have. He had to hurry – he could hear the heavy footsteps drawing closer – but every time he moved Yamaguchi's foot, the smaller boy cried out in pain.

“I'm sorry, Yamaguchi,” he muttered after a few attempts. He took a firm hold on the injured foot and took a second to prepare himself.

“This is going to hurt – ”

On the last word, he wrenched Yamaguchi's foot out of the hole.

As he'd feared, Yamaguchi screamed. The floorboard had gotten in there deep. There was blood all over his shoe.

Tsukishima pulled him roughly to a standing position and slung an arm across his back.

“Just keep you foot off the ground,” Tsukishima said over his shuddering sobs. “I'll carry you if I have to. You just focus on hanging on.”

Yamaguchi nodded clumsily and held tight. Tsukishima ran as hard as he could.

He wasn't even afraid anymore. Or perhaps he was so blindingly afraid that it no longer mattered.

He had one task. One thing he had to do.

Just one thing left, so he could focus on it entirely.

They were losing ground fast. Weighed down like this, Tsukishima was far slower than whatever was chasing them.

So he'd have to be smarter. Not faster. That was all that mattered.

Yamaguchi was sobbing hysterically into Tsukishima's shoulder – so hard that he could barely breathe.

Tsukishima turned a corner as fast as he could and ducked into the first room he found. He dragged Yamaguchi to the back and sat him down on the floor.

He glanced quickly over his shoulder. The thing was still coming. He could hear it.

He was already sure of what he had to do.

Yamaguchi gasped loudly as Tsukishima looked at his injured foot. It wasn't even pointing in the right direction. Tsukishima didn't know where to begin fixing it.

“Okay,” he breathed, looking up at Yamaguchi. “I'm going to...”

He trailed off, heart sinking.

Yamaguchi wasn't looking at him. He was staring off over Tsukishima's shoulder, eyes wide and glassy.

“...Yamaguchi,” he said, heartbeat speeding up. “What...”

Slowly, Yamaguchi raised his hands. Tsukishima watched him, wary.

His eyes never strayed from the spot over Tsukishima's shoulder.

His hands reached his neck and wrapped around it.

And they began, unflinchingly, to squeeze.

It took Tsukishima a moment to realize what he was trying to do.

“YAMAGUCHI!” he cried, grabbing at his wrists, trying to pull the choking hands away from his friend's neck – but it didn't work. Somehow, Yamaguchi was stronger than him, his grip vicelike and cold.

Yamaguchi was choking. He was _choking_ himself, _strangling himself with his own hands_ even as Tsukishima watched.

And still his eyes didn't move from that spot.

Finally, Tsukishima looked behind him.

A blue light. The shape of a small child's legs.

And then he turned back around. He couldn't look him in the eye.

Yamaguchi was turning blue. The little ghost boy over Tsukishima's shoulder was killing him.

Tsukishima grabbed for the tongue bag, pulled it out of his pocket, and carefully held it up in front of Yamaguchi's face.

For one heart-pounding moment, nothing happened. The cold light behind him didn't waver. Yamaguchi's hands still held tight.

And then Yamaguchi gasped again, and began to cough.

Tsukishima kept his eyes glued on Yamaguchi as he felt the tongue bag being lifted from his hand.

“There we go,” he breathed. “Ryo, right?”

“...Yes,” answered a tiny voice. Yamaguchi grabbed Tsukishima's hand again.

Tsukishima laced his fingers with Yamaguchi's, keeping his expression level to counter the freckled boy's panic.

“Leave us alone,” he said calmly.

“Thank you,” said the little ghost boy. His voice grew fainter, as though it was moving far away. “...Thank you...”

And they were alone again. Alone with the distant rampaging footsteps. They were slower now. They knew they didn't have to hurry.

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi cried, leaning on his chest again. “I... I...”

Tsukishima pulled him close for a moment, and held him tight. Yamaguchi moved to hug him back, but he pulled away too soon.

“That thing's still coming,” Tsukishima said. “It saw us go in here. It had to.”

“What do we do?” Yamaguchi squeaked. He took Tsukishima's hands again, clinging as though to a lifeline.

It pained Tsukishima to pull away, but he knew what he had to do.

“...Tadashi,” he said, looking him dead in the eye.

Yamaguchi startled at the use of his first name. Tsukishima couldn't remember if he'd ever used it before.

“Tadashi,” he repeated. “You stay here. I'm going ahead.”

“...What?” Yamaguchi whimpered, eyes filling with tears. “Tsukki – you can't – what are you _talking_ – ”

“Don't argue,” Tsukishima interrupted him, gripping his shoulders to hold his attention. “You're hurt. You can't move quickly. If we both stay here, it'll find us. If we both go, it'll catch up. I'm going to lead it away from you, and once I've lost it, I'll come back for you.

“...Hey – don't cry – ”

It was too late for that. Yamaguchi was already sobbing, hard, face hidden away in his hands.

“You'll be okay,” Tsukishima said calmly, over the footsteps, even louder than the heartbeat in his ears. He was astonished that Yamaguchi wasn't deafened by both.

“I'll come back for you,” Tsukishima said. “Don't cry.”

Yamaguchi choked back the tears long enough to look up.

“...You promise?” he wavered.

Tsukishima leaned in and pressed his lips to Yamaguchi's sweaty forehead. He heard him gasp a little, obviously taken by surprise. Then he backed off, and stood up.

“Of course I promise,” Tsukishima said, cheeks burning red. “I don't lie to you.”

With that, he turned on his heel and sprinted out of the room, turning down the hall.

The strangled roar that sounded behind him let him know that he had been spotted.

He had to run fast enough to be worth chasing, but not fast enough to lose it just yet... He had to make sure it didn't give up on him and go back for Yamaguchi, for easier prey.

He glanced over his shoulder only long enough to see that the dark shape had passed the door to the room where Yamaguchi was hidden.

And then he sped up, letting the real, blinding fear through at last. He let it carry him, without thinking at all. If he tried to think, he'd ruin everything in an instant. It was taking everything he had to keep himself from screaming.

He had to make it back to Tadashi. He had to.

He'd already lied to him once today. He couldn't let it be twice.

His hand was bleeding freely again, now that he wasn't making any effort to stop it. Blood flicked off his fingers with every step.

He rounded the next corner so fast that he fell over and rolled several feet. He felt a sharp pain in his side, but it didn't matter. He got right back up again and kept going.

He'd get back to Tadashi. And he'd get him home.

He shouldn't have kissed him. That would only make the lies hurt more.

The monster was gaining on him. He could hear its voice over his own thoughts. And then a still-deeper rumble started up, so low he could feel it in his bones.

Another earthquake. Stronger, it seemed, than the last.

Tsukishima fell to the ground and covered his head. Was the shaking drowning out the monster's screams, or had they stopped...?

He couldn't help it now. He yelled – _loud_ – and pressed his hands over his ears. He wanted it to stop it had to stop _make it stop –_

A lifetime later, it did.

Tsukishima lay there for a while, not trusting his body to do anything else. He breathed, and waited for his heartbeat to slow down, and listened.

He wasn't imagining it. The footsteps had stopped. The monster... had given up?

Shakily, he stood. He listened even more closely, not daring to believe that he was safe.

At the same time, he didn't want to wait, and give more chances for the thing to come back, for him to be wrong.

He didn't care anymore. That brief chase had been enough to settle it – he wanted to be back with Tadashi. To hell with his own safety. He'd helped Tadashi. That was what mattered. Tadashi was safe. Tadashi would get back. Tadashi would go home and get some sleep and get up and eat breakfast and go to school afterwards and _he would be okay._

Tsukishima wanted to cry.

This wasn't fair.

He began retracing his steps, focusing on one foot after another – one step at a time – to hold the tears back.

The pain in his side was growing. He put his hand to the place where it hurt and wasn't even fazed when it came away bloody. It didn't hurt that much. He could worry about it later.

Left turn. Right turn. Straight ahead, always looking carefully around corners to make sure that the thing really was gone. It was. It stayed gone all the way back to the classroom.

At any other time, he would have been on edge, his brain demanding to know _where_ the thing was, if not here.

He had no time for logic now. He was too tired, too shaky.

He staggered into the room where he'd left Tadashi and blinked in the dark.

“Tadashi,” he croaked. “I'm back. I'm okay.”

There was no answer. He'd probably hidden behind something, too scared to call back.

“Tadashi,” he repeated, stepping forward. “Come on. You're okay. We're okay.”

First, there was nothing – but as he drew closer, there came a quiet _giggle_ from behind one of the desks.

He stopped short, the color draining out of his face.

It was the laugh of a little girl.

He wanted to take a step back, to run away as fast as he could, but somehow he was rooted to the spot. He could only watch as the girl stood up – glowing blue, clad I na red dress – and slowly turned her black-haired head to look at him, wide-eyed, grinning.

“Oh, Tsukki,” she giggled. “ _Tsukki._ ”

He felt his knees give a little. “What... what have you done with him? _Where is he?_ ”

She only grinned, pulling a small piece of black fabric from her pocket. Athletic mesh. She brought a pair of sewing scissors into his view, eyes never straying from his.

She opened and closed the scissors a few times before beginning to hack at the scrap of fabric.

“Tsukki, Tsukki, _Tsukki_ ,” she sang quietly, punctuating each word with a harsh snip of the scissors through the fabric – and then her voice grew harsher, nearly a _squeal_ – “Tsukki where are you Tsukki _help me Tsukki TSUKKI!_ ”

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?” Tsukishima bellowed, blood vessels in his eyes on the verge of bursting. “ _WHAT DID YOU DO?!_ ”

“Nothing, _nothing_ , Tsukki,” she said, tilting her head to one side, letting the shredded fabric drift from her hand onto the floor. “I didn't do _anything._ ”

“Don't fucking lie to me!” he spat, tears flooding into his eyes. “What did you... what did you...”

His legs folded beneath him. He crashed to his knees, feeling very faint. And the tears fell; he couldn't stop them now.

Sachiko stepped forward, still giggling slightly. She stopped just in front of him and bent to look into his eyes. She grinned wider and shoved him over onto his back.

She stood over him now, and brandished the scissors.

He didn't know what she planned to do with them. At that moment, he didn't care. All he could think about was Tadashi – alone, afraid – even if she hadn't done anything to him, she had to have _seen him –_

And... could he even, conceivably, have survived that encounter?

The blades of the scissors were at his neck, on either side of his windpipe.

There wasn't any pressure, but suddenly he couldn't breathe.

“No, not there,” Sachiko decided. “Not enough _fun_ there...”

The scissors moved, dragging along the thin skin covering Tsukishima's jugular. Slowly, slowly, they drifted to his ribcage, and the to his stomach.

He was panicking. He couldn't even see anymore. He could only hear his heart, trying its best to break out of his chest. Every inch of him was alight with adrenaline, every nerve on high alert as each of them waited for the scissors to finally settle.

He could only imagine how those jagged, rusty blades would feel, pushing through his skin.

And then he didn't have to imagine any longer.

Sachiko thrust the scissors into Tsukishima's gut with far more strength than he'd thought possible. The blades were open, spread apart wide – so the incision had the most width possible.

Tsukishima's whole body jerked involuntarily – but he couldn't get away. He screamed – his middle was on _fire._ The blades were hot coals, boiling him alive. His hands flew to pull the scissors out, but nothing could be done.

She pushed harder. Blood spurted out, and Tsukishima yelled again, a strangled, gurgling sound that was halted midway through by a stomachful of vomit.

This didn't stop her, or even slow her down.

She put a hand on each side of the pair of scissors and began to _press them together._

Tsukishima screamed. He screamed so loudly he deafened himself.

It was no pain he'd ever even imagined before. Surely it was a pain that could never have been imagined by _anybody in the world._ Having his organs rearranged, sliced apart, scrambled up –

For the first time ever, as he lay there, soaked in tears and blood and saliva and bile and urine, he thought about death, and wished it would come to him quickly.

He wanted to die.

_He wanted to die._

But Sachiko – the clever, clever little murderer – knew every way to draw it out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is over 5000 words long. This is the new longest chapter. And it didn't even have any happiness at all. I just killed a bunch of shit. Can Sachiko even talk before she gets her tongue back. I don't remember. I'm going with it. Fear me.
> 
> So how's this one sitting with you? Not well? Me too. Eugh. How dare I.
> 
> Four more chapters to go, and then hopefully on to other things that won't make you want to vomit.
> 
> Sorry this update took a little longer than the standard I've set; it is, handwritten, 21 fucking sides of paper. I didn't mean for this to happen. Ennoshita was actually supposed to die in the last chapter he was in, but that one went too long as well. So as a result this chapter ended up with a shit-ton of death going on. I'm calling this rotation of chapters the 'All Hell Breaks Loose' arc.
> 
> As for the next chapter, I don't really know when it'll be up. I'll try for the weekend after this coming one - so, the weekend of the 7th of March - because I have Friday the 6th off from school, and should get some time to do that. I'm not counting on having any time to work THIS weekend, because I'm getting all four of my wisdom teeth pulled and I'm pretty much just setting those days up for null.
> 
> Keep checking i-homeostasis.tumblr.com/tagged/tfl-updates for stuff that might change that! I love you all. 
> 
> Even if y'all hate me now. Which you know is entirely probable.


	11. Artifical [AsaNoya]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been a little bit. Howdy!
> 
> A few little things to explain why this chapter took such a disproportionate amount of time:
> 
> Remember when I said I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled two weeks ago? They only pulled two. I get the other two out this Friday. Either way, as expected, all I wanted to do was sleep that weekend, so that was all I did. I also watched Aldnoah.Zero. Wonderful show by the by.
> 
> Last weekend, I was sick. Sick enough that at about five PM on Thursday I fell asleep and didn't wake up until six AM the following morning. Sick enough that my brain felt like fuzz. Colds take it out of me man. Luckily two days' hibernation fixed me right up.
> 
> Anyway, hopefully the last few (3!) chapters won't take this long. Well, the last one might. But that's going to be like novella-level stuff, man. 
> 
> Anyway, without further ado, enjoy your 2,989 new words.

Noya held Asahi long after his crying stopped. He kept stroking his hair, scratching gently at the back of his head - all the little things that always worked to calm him down. All through it, Asahi lay heavily on his shoulder, shuddering a little, shaking like a leaf.

When he'd been quiet for a little while, Noya returned to just holding him.

"What happened in there?" he asked gently.

Asahi only shook his head.

"Are you okay?"

A nod.

"You're sure?"

Another nod, followed by a short humming sound.

"All in one piece? How's your leg?"

"'S fine," Asahi managed. He pushed his face closer to Noya's neck. "I'm okay."

He certainly sounded calmer. He sounded exhausted, really. More than anything, Noya wanted to let him rest.

But they weren't safe. Dying in this place was a very real possibility. Noya knew, now, who it was he'd seen smashed with the hammer. He didn't want to think about it. If he thought about it - if he put words to thouse thoughts - it would make it real. He couldn't deal with that right now.

All he could let himself think about was Asahi, and just now, he was very capable of that.

"Ready to let me fix your hair?" he murmured.

Asahi nodded again, and after a little while he pulled away.

He looked sick. His eyes were all red and puffy. He looked  _so tired._

Noya grimaced a little, and cupped Asahi's chin in his hands.

Asahi didn't even react. He just closed his eyes.

Noya pushed his hair back from his face, then stood up on his knees to walk around beside him.

He moved slowly, and didn't immediately start putting the hair up. Asahi always chilled way out when Noya played with his hair. Sure enough, after mere moments, he saw some of the tension in his shoulders go away.

Satisfied, Noya gathered all the hair into one handful and started winding it up.

"You're supposed to just bunch it up and tie it," Asahi grumbld. "It's gonna fall out."

"Ssh; I know what I'm doing."

"No you don't."

"Well, you know what, I didn't anticipate this being a skill I might need," Noya retorted. "Why do you have so much hair, anyway?"

"I like it."

"I like it too, but  _geez_ this has to be a pain to do every morning," Noya said, accidentally letting half of the hair slide out of his hands.

"Not if you do it right," Asahi said.

Noya haphazardly threw his hair into some semblance of a bun and wrapped the elastic band around it tight. Miraculously, it held. 

"Now," he said, "Just don't move your head from that angle and it should hold just fine."

"Hmm."

Noya stood up and walked in front of him again, extending a hand to help him up. Asahi took it and Noya hauled him to his feet.

"...How did you even do that?" Asahi asked, frowning down at him.

Noya grinned. "I told you. I could carry you if I wanted."

"I guess I believe you now," Asahi said quietly, smiling and looking away. "You... don't need to do that, though. Just..."

"Mmh?"

"...Just hold my hand?" Asahi wavered.

Noya laughed and grabbed his hand. "I am extremely capable of that," he replied. "You wanna lean on me a bit? You probably shouldn't be putting all your weight on that leg."

"I'm okay," Asahi replied. "Really."

"Okay," Noya said. "Let's head out then, okay?"

Asahi nodded and Noya led him onwards.

\- - -

Finally, they were moving again. Noya could breathe now. He just had to keep his wits about him and listen for... whatever it was that he'd seen earlier.

_Chill. Just don't think about it. Don't think about how easily that could have been Asahi who got smashed back there. Don't think about the fact that you know who it was that did. Don't think about how just being in this place makes you want to puke._

_Don't think about how much that had to have_ _**hurt -** _

"Yuu?"

Noya started. "Hmm?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, just - you're breaking my fingers a little, is all."

"Oh." Noya relaxed his hand. "Sorry about that. Nah, I'm fine. Place is creepy, though, huh?"

"M-hm," Asahi nodded, and squeezed Noya's fingers.

Noya beamed up at him and recieved a shy little smile in return. The eye contact didn't last long. The taller boy's cheeks went slightly pink.

Noya swung their hands a little. He didn't know a better way to make him less nervous than by just acting like everything was normal.

He just had to act normal. He was good at that.

“H-hey,” Asahi said suddenly, stopping completely.

 

“What? What is it?” Noya demanded, eyes darting around. “What?”

“...Do you hear that?” Asahi breathed.

Noya closed his eyes and listened close. For a while, he didn't hear anything. He was listening for the heavy footfalls and bellowing sounds of the man with the hammer. The sound he eventually caught on to was completely different.

“That's people talking,” he breathed, opening his eyes. “Is that – do you hear –”

“...Daichi?” Asahi finished. “...Y-yeah, I… I think that's...”

“Come on,” Noya said, rushing forward, pulling him along.

He should move slower. Asahi's ankle really was messed up.

But he couldn't help it. If that really was Daichi they were hearing, they were that much closer to getting out of here.

They moved on as quickly as they could – and once they got close enough that they were sure, Noya couldn't stop himself from calling out.

“Daichi!” he shouted. “That's you, right?”

There was a pause. Then somebody else's voice rang back at them.

“Yuu?!”

Noya either didn't see or didn't register the enormous hole in the floor before him. If Asahi hadn't frantically thrown an arm around his middle to stop him, he might have gone falling right in.

“Ryu,” Noya called, relieved. “You're okay?”

“I'm fine, I'm fine. And – Asahi, too?”

“Hello,” Asahi croaked.

Noya squinted in the dark. They stood at an intersection whose middle had fallen in. Four hallways ended here. He could see Ryu there, across from them, and Daichi beside him. Off to their left, he now saw somebody huddled against the wall.

“Who's there?” Noya asked. “On my left?”

“Hinata and Kageyama,” Daichi intoned – but there was something very wrong with the way his voice sounded. It sent chills down Noya's spine.

“Nishinoya,” Kageyama spoke up – he sounded tired. “Azumane.”

“What about the others?” Noya asked. “Haven't found them yet? Where's Suga, at least? I thought he'd be with you.”

There was an absolutely bleak silence. Ryu glanced quickly at Daichi, whose expression was completely blank.

Hinata let out a small, choked sob.

Ryu opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted.

“Suga's not with us anymore,” Daichi said tonelessly. “He won't be coming back.”

Noya's heart stopped. Asahi gasped beside him.

“Wh… what?” he breathed. “Suga – wait, you mean he's...”

Noya wrapped an arm around his waist and squeezed hard.

Kageyama spoke again. “And… Narita,” he managed. “Narita… either.”

Asahi's knees wobbled. Noya helped him sit down, and knelt beside him, letting him rest his head on his shoulder.

Aside from Asahi's harsh breathing, and Hinata's continued, muffled crying, the six of them were silent.

“Kageyama,” Noya called. “How's Shouyo?”

“He… ah… hit his head. Pretty hard,” Kageyama replied. “I think he'll be okay… but he needs to go to the hospital. I think he has a concussion.”

“Do we have a way out?” Noya asked. “ Do we know how to get out?”

“Yes,” Daichi said. “We found out.”

\- - -

“So the paper scraps are the key out,” Noya repeated, thinking over all the information carefully, so he wouldn't forget. “Okay, great.”

“Now we just need to find everybody else,” Ryu said. “There's enough of us here that it won't take long to find everything we need. Daichi and I know where one of the tongues is… so there should be two more, besides that one.”

“One,” Daichi corrected him. “There were two earthquakes. Two appeasements.”

“So… I guess… well, Hinata shouldn't move – Kageyama, can you stay with him?”

“Yeah,” Kageyama answered, holding the shivering boy close again. “Yeah, I can.”

“Hey, I...” Noya spoke up – but his words caught in his throat. He tried again – they were waiting for him to say something. Even Asahi calmed down enough to listen.

“...I don't know if it's safe to just sit around,” Noya said. “There's… I saw...”

“What?” Ryu asked. He'd been quiet for a few moments without realizing it.

There wasn't a way to dance around this. Asahi would have to hear it. Noya couldn't protect him from it anymore.

His mouth was very dry.

“There's a guy in here – he's got this hammer, bigger than me,” he managed. “He's not… friendly. I saw him… hit somebody with it.”

“One of us?” Daichi inquired, far too flatly.

“...Yeah,” Noya replied.

He heard Asahi stop breathing. For a little while, nobody said anything. Then Daichi did.

“Do you know who it was?” he asked.

“...Yamaguchi,” Noya croaked. “He's dead.”

Asahi wasn't even shaking anymore. He was holding completely still.

This was far more terrifying than his crying. Noya at least knew how to deal with tears. He could stand up to tears.

It was like Asahi was shutting down.

Noya had to get him out of here as quickly as humanly possible. He couldn't let him break in here.

Across the gap, Hinata was sobbing into Kageyama's chest. Noya could only hope against hope that Kageyama could keep that under control.

Noya wanted to cry too. He wanted to scream. He couldn't accept that any of this was real.

But he could cry later. Later, when he didn't have to be strong for the sake of the others. Hinata wasn't able to hang on alone. Asahi was crumbling right before his eyes. Kageyama, well, it was taking all he had just to keep Hinata sane.

And – he had to admit it, no matter how much it scared him – Daichi was just _gone_. If he'd been right, and Suga was… _dead,_ then… What was left of Daichi, even, their main pillar of support?

Was it really up to just him and Ryu now? And even Ryu was shaken up. He couldn't assume he could help.

So. Noya could cry later. For the sake of everyone who was left.

_Left._

Noya shook his head and squeezed Asahi's shoulders to make sure he was still there.

“So – Kageyama. Careful, but try and get Hinata somewhere safe. Is there, like – a landmark, a room we all know, where we can all meet up?”

“The library?” Kageyama suggested. “Or the infirmary...”

“Not the infirmary,” Noya said, at the exact same time that Ryu said, “Not the library.” The two of them exchanged a glance.

“The main hall,” Daichi spoke up. “It's not far from here. Kageyama, you'll just have to keep going right. It's a big, wide hall with double doors at the end. Just wait there and the rest of us will catch up. If you hear anything, just go into a room and block the door as best you can.”

“Okay,” Kageyama said shortly. “Okay. Hinata –”

He stood and pulled Hinata with him. The shorter boy clumsily clambered on to his back and held on tight.

“Hang in there, Shouyo,” Noya called after them, as they walked out of sight. “Look after him, okay, Kageyama?”

“Yeah,” came the halfhearted reply.

The four at the intersection listened to the retreating footsteps. Noya rubbed Asahi's shoulder with his thumb. He wanted to say something, but words wouldn't be a comfort anymore.

“You all right, Ryu?” he asked.

“I'm okay. Asahi? You okay, bud?”

“I'm… I-I'm...” Asahi tried a few times before glancing up at Noya, desperate.

Taking the hint, Noya replied for him. “He's okay. His ankle's a little twisted up, but that's no big deal. He'll be cool once we get out of here.

“'N… Daichi, how are –”

“It doesn't matter.” Daichi cut him off and turned on his heel. “Meet us in the main hall in half an hour, tongue or no tongue.”

Ryu shot a quick, scared glance over his shoulder at Noya before hurrying after the captain.

Asahi and Noya were alone again. Noya kissed the side of his head quickly and then stood up.

“C'mon,” he said, holding out a hand. “Half an hour and we're out of here again. And then I'm spending the night at your place for like the next eternity and a half.”

He didn't smile. He stood up slowly, without Noya's help. He tried to stand on his own, but he wobbled dangerously, and Noya moved quickly to catch him.

Asahi ducked his head and wouldn't meet Noya's eyes.

Noya took his hand and squeezed it.

“I'm not just saying this, all right?” he breathed. “ _You're going to be okay._ It's not just talk. I'll make sure. Don't worry. You hear me?”

Asahi nodded, but still wouldn't look at him, and kept his mouth shut tight.

“Not feeling good?”

A shake of the head.

“Okay. Not a big deal. Just hang on to my hand and let me do all the thinking, okay?”

Noya led the way in silence for a little while. He tried all the doors they came to, but all of them were locked. He really hoped that the tongue wasn't in one of the locked rooms. He didn't want to have to try busting the doors down.

“Yuu?” Asahi croaked after a little while.

“Hm?” Noya said distractedly, peering into a window. He couldn't see anything in there. In fact, he was struck by the absolute lack of _anything_ beyond the glass. It was just _black._

“Yuu, I… I love you, okay?”

His voice broke halfway through. His hand in Noya's was clammy and shivering.

Noya pulled away from the window to look up at him, a little stunned. It was the first time Asahi had ever said that.

Asahi wouldn't meet his gaze, though. His eyes were on the ground. He was shy, but this wasn't shyness. Noya didn't know what it was at all, but…

“I love you too,” he replied. “Asahi? What's this about?”

“N-nothing,” Asahi stammered, closing his eyes. “I just… I realized I've never said that to you before. I thought I should, you know?”

Noya turned Asahi's chin up with one hand. “Look at me.”

After a moment, Asahi worked up the nerve to do it. His eyes were wide and a little bloodshot. This wasn't going well for him at all.

“You're sure you're okay?” Noya asked. “You're sure there's nothing you wanna talk about?”

“Well… I mean… I'm not… I'm not _okay_ , really… None of us are actually _okay…_ I actually… I think I'm handling this too well. I think I'm _too_ okay with everything. I mean… Suga. Yamaguchi. Narita. I...”

He stopped, eyebrows knitting in extreme distress. “Why can I even stand right now?” he sounded hysterical. “What the hell is wrong with me?!”

Noya pulled him down and kissed him hard. When he let go, Asahi was crying again.

“There's nothing wrong with you, okay?” Noya said quietly, touching their foreheads together. “Whatever your reaction is right now, it's okay. _It's okay,_ ” he repeated, as Asahi tried to duck away again. “ _You are going to be okay._ How many times do I need to say it?

“Hang in there for me, Asahi, okay? I need you to hang on.”

Asahi covered his face with both hands and breathed deeply. When he'd calmed down a bit, he nodded.

“Okay. Let's go.”

\- - -

The next few doors Noya tried were locked, but finally he came to one that wasn't and pushed it open.

“You wanna hang back?” Noya asked Asahi, gently.

Asahi nodded and let go of his hand. Noya smiled at him and walked on, doing his best to look confident.

He looked through several desks quickly, finding nothing. There was a cabinet tipped over in front of him, blocking his way.

“Careful,” Asahi called as he climbed up on top of it. “Don't fall.”

Noya put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Don't tell me what to do,” Noya shot back. “I'll fall if I damn well want –”

He stopped talking abruptly as he turned his attention to the floor on the other side. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach before he had registered what he was looking at.

A leg.

Just a fucking _leg._

Hacked off rough at the knee, dried blood in splatters all around. A left leg.

And he _recognized the shoe it was wearing._

“...Fuck,” he whispered. “Fuck no...”

“Yuu?”

Asahi's voice was rising in panic. Noya shook himself and blinked.

“Hm? Nothing,” Noya said, looking quickly up at him and then back at the leg. There was something beside it – a little drawstring bag.

“Actually – I think I found the tongue,” he said, kneeling and reaching down to pick up the bag.

“You did?”

Noya pulled the bag open and wrinkled his nose at the discolored lump inside.

“Eugh,” he grunted. “Yep. Yep. What I have found is indeed a tongue. Let's. Um. That's… God, _fuck_ that's disgusting.”

“Let's go back, then?” Asahi asked.

“Yeah,” Noya chirped, hopping down off the cabinet and hurrying over to him. “Yeah, let's get the fuck out of here. One step closer to home, Asahi.”

Noya led him away as quickly and cheerfully as he could. As much as he did this – this forced normality, this artificial lightheartedness – for Asahi's sake, he now realized he was doing it for his own sake as well.

Anything to get as far away as possible from the image of Kinoshita, slowly bleeding away, cold and alone in this godforsaken school.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it wasn't so eventful. Can you tell I like writing 1) AsaNoya angst and 2) Noya in general? Good.
> 
> Also I wanted to make a quick shout-out to queen--ioryuu on Tumblr. This lovely individual made art for me. Art that reminds me in no uncertain terms that I killed Koushi Sugawara. It really made me think 'how dare I'. How dare I indeed.
> 
> Anyway, thanks to you! :D Feedback like that really motivates me so much you have no idea.
> 
> See you guys next time! As I mentioned earlier, I'm getting the other two wisdom teeth pulled on Friday, so that knocks out work time this weekend. I'll do my best to get the next one out sooner than this one! Thanks for understanding.
> 
> Now I'm going to sleep because it's midnight and I need to wake up at six.
> 
> Bye!


	12. Stages

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaay there guys this one took a little bit. Hectic times, kinda. Lot of school. I hate school. I'm still recovering/catching up from those two days I missed a couple weeks ago and I took Friday off as well, which was probably a mistake. I have a B in fucking Lit of all things. I have had an A in that class all year without doing shit.
> 
> Anyway here's your fucking violent Haikyuu-Corpse Party mashup you damn masochists

Hinata wasn't heavy, but Kageyama was still breathing hard by the time he set him down in the main hall. It had taken a bit to find the place, going only off of vague recollections of where it was.

The whole way, Kageyama didn't say a word, and Hinata never stopped crying. The news of Sugawara's and Yamaguchi's deaths had knocked him down completely. So Kageyama had to handle them on his own, too.

He knew that wasn't the only reason Hinata was so far gone.

 _It's not your fault,_ he'd wanted to say. _It's not your fault. There is no way you could have known this would happen._

But he'd said that already. And it hadn't helped. This couldn't be fixed with words, and certainly not here, of all places. There wasn't anything he could say or do that would fix this even a little bit.

But… When they got out, who else would there be who could help? Who would believe them?

Three of the group were still unaccounted for – Ennoshita, Tsukishima, and Kinoshita. They'd already lost three – three too many.

If they lost anybody, even one more person…

Kageyama had shaken his head vigorously. They wouldn't. Those three were perfectly competent. If he and Hinata had made it this far, then of course those three would, too.

But then again, the things they were up against…

_Stop it._

He forced himself to calm down, to stop pacing, and to sit down beside Hinata, who had curled himself up into a little ball. He was sobbing into his knees. Kageyama sat down a little ways away, just out of arm's reach.

He wasn't really sure how close he should be. He wanted Hinata to feel safe, but shouldn't he give him some space?

These questions were answered for him when Hinata raised his head a little and extended one small, shivering hand in Kageyama's direction.

“K… Kageyama?” he wavered.

“Hm?”

“Could you… come here?”

“What?”

“I'm cold,” Hinata whispered. “Please, could you...”

Kageyama took the hand and scooted himself closer to Hinata, watching him carefully.

Hinata's eyes were just as dead as they had been when Kageyama had found him in the bathroom stall. There was nothing behind them at all. Kageyama really was just a heat source. Normally, they hardly ever got within a few feet of each other, and then one of them would move away, teasing the other for having moved so close.

There was none of that teasing light in Hinata's eyes now. His jumbled-up little brain only registered _cold_.

Kageyama held tight to the hand and let Hinata lean on his shoulder. He glanced down at Hinata's forehead, and found that it wasn't bleeding anymore, but that there was a giant purple bruise forming all over it.

That, at least, would be easy to explain away. Hinata was always falling over. The bruise on his neck, though…

He could worry about it later. He had to focus on _now._

He wished he had some way of keeping track of time. He'd never felt half an hour take as long as this one was taking.

\- - -

Hinata was only vaguely aware of someone – Kageyama, he realized eventually – carrying him along. He couldn't think about that, though – he didn't have any thought to spare. He had to focus on breathing, or else he wasn't sure he'd keep doing it.

Besides, how could he think of Kageyama when he couldn't stop thinking about Suga, and Yamaguchi, and Narita?

It was all his fault. It was all his fault. It was _all his fault._

Narita's last few moments of life had to have been agonized. The amount of blood pouring from his mouth, eyes, and nose – that had to have been what killed him.

Hinata could have sworn he'd seen one of his hands twitch.

All his fault all his fault all his fault

Kageyama set him down gently and sat beside him. Hinata called for him to come closer, nearly incoherent. He missed the warmth.

It was really dumb, but right now Kageyama was the only thing that made sense. He was close, and he was warm.

He felt a hand through his hair. Dimly, he could hear a heartbeat in Kageyama's chest. Stead, strong. Hinata clung to it, and then, without meaning to, he clung on physically, wrapping shaky little arms around Kageyama's torso, falling onto his lap, burying his face in his stomach.

Hinata heard him protest a little, but soon he relaxed.

Both of them liked this warmth, this gentleness.

Hinata was too tired to think. He just wanted the ghosts in his head to go away for a little while.

Was it too much to ask, after what he'd done?

“Hinata… don't cry, please...”

He hadn't even noticed that he'd started again.

Kageyama hugged him tight and Hinata cried harder.

“Shh, shh, shh...”

Hinata felt a cool drop of liquid on his cheek, mingling with his own tears. Something pressed the side of his head. Kageyama's breathing grew rough. Hinata felt it rushing through his hair.

There wasn't a point in pretending any longer. They both cried now, and held on to each other for dear life.

\- - -

Tanaka followed Daichi closely as they progressed through the school. He knew that Daichi had just as much idea of where they were going – namely none at all – but it was easier, somehow, with him leading the way.

He wanted to ask if Daichi was okay, but he knew he wasn't.

He felt useless. He felt sick. He wanted to do something, but what could he possibly do?

They'd found four. The two of them and the three they hadn't found yet would be just fine.

Daichi strode on ahead, the ancient cat plush dangling from his hand like he'd forgotten about it.

Tanaka shivered. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

Daichi led the way up a flight of stairs and turned right, without any hesitation. Tanaka hurried after him, not wanting to let him out of his sight.

They hadn't gone far when Daichi stopped dead in his tracks, and Tanaka ran into him.

“What?” he croaked, voice high with fear. “Daichi?”

Daichi was looking down. Tanaka was deadly afraid to look anywhere but at the back of his head. He could see something, barely, at the bottom edge of his vision – and he could smell it, too, that horrible thing before them – but he didn't dare look.

He knew the smell, and the feeling in his gut. He wished he didn't know it. He shouldn't have to. Nobody on the entire planet should have to.

Daichi knelt down for a closer look.

\- - -

In his deadened state, Daichi could look at this more analytically than Tanaka. The thing that was on the floor before them was a body. A human body, reduced to little more than a pulp. The face was still visible, still recognizable – and there were a few other limbs and parts that were identifiable, as well.

The expression was terrified. The jaw was stuck open and the eyes were bleeding.

Daichi closed his eyes.

Goddammit.

_Goddammit._

He heard Tanaka saying his name, quiet and afraid, behind him. Any other circumstances and Daichi would comfort him. For now, Daichi didn't give a fuck how scared he was, as long as he was alive.

Every corpse they wound was another time he'd failed to keep his promise to Kou. There had already been three, and now there were four.

Apologies were useless. Nothing he could do would make up for this.

Daichi stood up and faced ahead.

“Ennoshita,” he said. “Must have been that guy with the hammer that Nishinoya was talking about.”

“Y-yeah,” Tanaka choked. He sounded like he was about to vomit.

Daichi hurried on. “Stay close, Tanaka,” he said, carefully stepping around Ennoshita's remains.

These were _his kids._

He'd be damned if he lost even one more.

He'd already lost far, far too many.

. . .

 

The next corpse was completely identifiable. Neither of them had to look long to know whose it was.

The face, though – it wasn't in a state like one they'd ever seen before.

It was frozen, with yellow eyes clouded and wide-open. The glasses had fallen off and lay broken by the side. The white face, the arms, the entire midsection – all soaked and stained with blood.

Daichi and Tanaka stood before Tsukishima's mangled body in stunned silence. Tanaka wouldn't look. He was too scared to cry. He was too scared to do anything.

They didn't spend long in there.

It was plainly obvious that Tsukishima had suffered. Perhaps for hours. He looked barely gone.

Daichi heard Tanaka retch behind him.

“You can go wait outside, if you want, Tanaka,” he said. “Just give me a minute.”

Tanaka ended up just waiting in the doorway, facing out, while Daichi knelt beside Tsukishima.

Another hole opened up in his chest as he looked the dead boy over.

I'm sorry.

_I'm sorry._

He closed his eyes. His head hurt all over.

He didn't deserve to be forgiven. He knew that. But – _pathetic_ – all he could say was how sorry he was.

Daichi probably stayed there for a long time, but neither he nor Tanaka said anything about it. For the longest time, he didn't feel like he could move.

He reached up and slid Tsukishima's eyes closed. He was cold, but not nearly as cold as Daichi thought he should be. He could have just come inside, out of a snowy winter morning.

Not very cold.

But cold enough.

This done, he sighed and stood up.

That was almost everybody accounted for, at least. He knew where almost everyone was, alive or dead.

They still hadn't found Kinoshita.

Daichi silently closed his eyes and  _prayed_ that he was alive. That he wouldn't have to find another one of these damned amazing kids dead.

Daichi decided, right then and there, that they would all live. He wouldn't stop until he got the remaining six all gathered up and home. He wouldn't rest. He would not give up.

No matter what he had to do to make it happen, they would all make it out of this hell alive.

“Come on, Tanaka,” he croaked, tearing his eyes away from Tsukishima. “We have to find the tongue.”

. . .

 

Once they found the music room – down at the opposite end of the hall from Tsukishima's body – it didn't take long to find the tongue. It was out in the open, on a desk.

Tanaka watched Daichi walk over and pick it up without so much as blinking.

“Tokiko,” he said, reading the label on the side. “The one with half a head.”

The one that had killed Suga. Tanaka's stomach lurched.

“Let's go. The others should be gathering up by now; we shouldn't keep them waiting.”

As quickly and expressionlessly as he had entered the room, now Daichi led the way out of it.

. . .

 

Maybe they walked for a while, maybe they didn't. Tanaka couldn't tell. They could have been walking for hours, he felt so tired. He felt like years had gone by in here, and he could see every one of them in Daichi's stiff, deliberate movements.

He tried to turn his attention to better thoughts. Yuu and Asahi were okay; that was good. Kageyama was hanging in there. Hinata was… alive, at least.

How had it gone so wrong so fast? Only two or three hours ago, all of them, all twelve of them, and been alive and laughing and playing volleyball together, not a care in the world.

Now their number had dwindled to six, and every single one of them would take this with them for the rest of their lives.

And they wouldn't even be able to tell anybody, Tanaka realized. Who wouldn't think they were crazy?

And what about the ones who hadn't made it? How would they tell their parents what had happened? With six kids missing, out of a safe part of town, the police would get involved, too…

Yuu was okay… Asahi… again he went through the list, breathing slowly in and out with each name.

He didn't immediately notice the icy-cold hand on his shoulder.

A weird, guttural groan sounded right behind him, almost right in his ear.

Tanaka froze solid. He couldn't even breathe.

Daichi continued on without him, not noticing that he was gone. As hard as Tanaka tried to call out, he didn't make a sound. All he could do was listen to his own frantic heartbeat and watch Daichi get farther and farther away as the cold, dead hands began to constrict his breathing.

He felt something poking at the back of his head – something sharp, and cold.

His mouth tasted like adrenaline.

This was the thing that had killed Suga. The ghost that had a hold of him right now – he had watched her pull Suga's guts right out of him with her bare hands.

His knees went slack, but he didn't fall.

The sound of a pair of scissors seemed to come from inside his skull. The blades pressed to the back of his head, but they didn't break skin just yet.

She was going to slowly chip through the thickest part of his skull.

It would be slow. It would take a long time.

But, most certainly, he would die.

One ghostly hand reached around and covered his mouth, holding his head in place.

Tanaka's vision was blurred. When he closed his eyes, a few tears dropped out.

This was going to hurt.

The point of the blade was gone from the back of his head.

He couldn't have possibly prepared himself for the way it felt.

The first strike shook his entire skull, jarred him so bad he became instantly dizzy. He felt his blood dripping down the back of his neck.

The scissors moved away and took aim again. They struck hard at a different point – another nail deep in his head. Everything rang harshly.

The blades rotated, grinding against bone, crackling in Tanaka's ears. Nothing was broken yet. He was making very sure that he would feel the grating sound of jagged metal on bone for the rest of his life.

His teeth rattled. Even if he could have screamed, he couldn't have.

The pain felt like fire.

_Stop stop stop stop_

Nothing could be worse than this. Even death had to be better than the scissors slowly scraping away.

That was the only sound, That was all that existed.

But then there was another.

“TANAKA!”

Daichi's voice was a roar, louder than should have been possible.

Tanaka's eyes flew open just in time to see Daichi skidding to a stop in front of him, frowning with eyes on fire.

Tokiko giggled – if that terrible sound could be called a giggle. She rotated the blades under Tanaka's skin again.

“Tokiko!” Daichi bellowed, holding up the bag with the shriveled tongue inside.

The scissors paused.

“This is yours, isn't it?” Daichi said, voice lower but not quiet. “Isn't it?”

The scissors rattled for a second as the hand that held them shook – and then they pulled away.

A rush of air left Tanaka's lungs as one final pain went through his head.

“Yeah. There you are. Let him go,” Daichi said, without an ounce of comfort. “Let him go and I'll give this back to you. Is that a deal?”

Slowly, slowly, the hand pulled away from Tanaka's mouth. As it did, he felt his body giving out. He crumpled to the ground and lay there, heart sprinting, chest heaving.

Daichi held his hand out and gave Tokiko the little bag. Once she had a hold of it, her entire form started to shiver.

Tanaka sat up, dizzy, cradling his head in his hands.

A voice spoke – timid and shivering, coming from nowhere at all.

_I'm… I'm sorry._

“Save it,” Daichi spat, frowning hard. “That doesn't mean shit to me.”

The little ghost girl shrank back.

“Just – you and your little friends – don't touch another fucking one of these kids, get me?”

 _I won't,_ Tokiko wavered. _For as long as I can, I won't…_

“Good,” Daichi snarled, grabbing Tanaka by the hand and hauling him to his feet. “Now get out of my fucking sight.”

Tanaka watched the little girl fade into the dark hallway behind her. The scissors clattered to the floor.

“You okay there, bud?” Daichi asked Tanaka, finally with an air of gentleness. “She had those scissors in there good...”

“She didn't break anything,” Tanaka croaked. “Trust me. I'd have noticed...”

“Well – the blades aren't rusted or anything. I don't think you'll get sick from them. You good to walk? Lean on me, okay?”

Tanaka did so, and gladly. All his systems were going crazy. He was exhausted.

“I'm not losing another one,” Daichi mumbled. “Not another one, I swear.”

Tanaka could tell that Daichi was not talking to him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah that's a thing.
> 
> Only two more chapters (and one more appeasement) to go! The last one is going to be really really long, though, as I've mentioned before - it definitely has the potential to become the new longest chapter. It has to beat 5.1K and I really think it can do that.
> 
> See you next time! I've gotten a decent start on the next one already, so with luck I won't take so long getting it posted. It's Noya's point of view next time. None of this hectic jumping-around shit.
> 
> As always, thanks for the positivity. This is the first fic I've ever written and I felt really silly about it - and while that hasn't really stopped, I'm at least glad that people are enjoying it.
> 
> <3


	13. Scrap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY THERE GUYS I TYPED THIS IN LIKE TWO HOURS THAT'S A RECORD ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THIS WAS ONLY SIX UNDER 5K WOW MY WRISTS ARE UNCOMFORTABLE PLEASE EXCUSE TYPOS I'LL FIX THEM LATER
> 
> ANYWAY YEAH SECOND TO LAST CHAPTER HAVE FUN

Noya led Asahi back to the main hall as fast as he possibly could. He could only vaguely remember where it was, having only passed through it once, on his panicked first trip through the school. He tried to force conversation every now and then, but it never lasted. Asahi never talked much when he wasn't feeling well. Especially at a time like this, Noya didn't want to press him.

He settled for swinging their clasped hands back and forth every so often, and keeping up a smile in case Asahi happened to look down at him. The faҫade wasn't difficult. It left him free to look quickly around them, constantly on the lookout for anything dangerous. Their path to the main hall, though, was mercifully clear.

Noya's heart skipped a beat or two when they got close, though – because, vaguely, he could hear crying.

“Shouyo? Kageyama?” he called out. “Is that you? Are you all right?”

The quiet noises paused. A small sniff.

“We're here,” Kageyama choked. “We're okay. Nishinoya? And Asahi?”

“That is us,” Noya chirped as they came into sight. He had to hold back a frown; his underclassmen didn't look like they were doing well at all. Kageyama's face was blotchy red from crying, and Shouyo's was hidden from view entirely, pressed to Kageyama's chest. Noya noticed that Kageyama had given Shouyo his hoodie. It dwarfed him. It should keep him plenty warm.

Kageyama shifted Shouyo a little to free one of his hands. Scrubbing at his eyes, he asked, “Did you get a tongue?”

“Yep,” Noya said, holding it up. “Belongs to the one in the red dress. Sachiko? Yeah. Now we just have to wait for Daichi and Ryu to get back to us, and then we can get out of here.”

“Good,” Kageyama breathed, before burying his face in Shouyo's hair. “Good.”

Noya watched the two of them carefully. They had each other. They'd be okay.

Asahi wobbled again – and Noya glanced up at him briefly before suggesting that they sit down too. Asahi agreed and they sat beside the other two.

Noya sat between Asahi and Kageyama. He wanted to keep an eye on Shouyo, who still hadn't stopped crying. He reached over and fluffed up the boy's hair.

“Hang in there, Shouyo, buddy,” he murmured. “We'll be out of here in just a little while. We'll go home. We'll be okay, Shouyo, I promise, little guy.”

Shouyo sniffled and burrowed closer to Kageyama, who pulled his knees up to hold him close.

Noya grimaced at them.

Something thudded gently onto his shoulder. Asahi had leaned sideways to rest his forehead there. Noya could feel him frowning.

Silently, he reached up and rubbed the back of Asahi's neck. He noticed he was shaking. Crying, again – quietly, in order to keep it from the first years.

He didn't like breaking, Noya knew. He'd draw as little attention to it as possible.

Asahi moved again – all at once gathering Noya into his arms and squeezing tight.

Noya allowed himself a small, incredulous laugh. “What are you doing, you big dummy?” he murmured.

Asahi sniffled. Noya kissed the top of his head.

 _Dammit, Daichi, Ryu,_ he thought to himself. _Hurry the fuck up, guys. Everyone's falling apart._

“Asahi, shh,” he said, as quietly as he could manage, breathing it into his hair. “Breathe. Slow.”

Asahi nodded, but didn't relax his hold on Noya. If anything, he clung on tighter.

Noya's chest felt ready to explode with how much he wanted to just fucking tackle-hug him. To just lie on top of him and hold him tight and tell him just how much he cared.

Later. Later he could do that.

For now, he settled for scratching Asahi's head and kissing him, over and over.

Before too long, Noya heard something approaching. Quiet, slow footsteps. Unsteady – but they had to belong to the other two.

“Daichi?” Noya called out, looking down the hall in that direction. “Ryu? That you guys?”

“It's us,” Daichi called back. “We're here.”

Asahi let go and sat up, rubbing at his eyes. Noya squinted at the approaching silhouette. It looked funny, like they were leaning on each other.

“...Everything okay?” Noya asked cautiously.

“Well,” Daichi said.

Noya's heart dropped a little.

“I'm okay, Yuu,” Ryu's voice came now, but quietly. “I'm okay, before you freak out.”

“...Why would I freak out?” Noya demanded, now at least ten times more likely to freak out.

He saw why as Daichi and Ryu got close enough to see.

The collar of Ryu's jersey was soaked in blood.

Noya sprang to his feet and rushed over.

“The fuck happened?” he growled, searching his best friend's head and neck for the source of the blood, despite his protests. “The fuck –”

“One of the ghosts attacked him,” Daichi explained as Noya found the wound. “But we appeased it. And he'll be fine – really, Nishinoya, he'll be fine.”

Not entirely reassured but out of things to be mad at, Noya took a step back, holding Ryu at arm's length and scowling at him.

Ryu grinned brightly in return. “Hey, bud,” he said.

Noya roughly pulled him close and held him tight for a moment. Ryu hugged him back.

“Goddammit,” Noya hissed. “You're not broken anywhere, or anything?”

“Just a cut on the back of my head,” Ryu said as they let go. “Don't worry about me. How's Shouyo?”

Noya turned back around, finding Asahi standing behind him. He smiled vaguely and took his hand. Asahi was still so pale.

Kageyama spoke up then, very quietly.

“You didn't find any of the rest of us.”

Noya felt sick.

“I'm sorry,” Daichi said. “We… found Tsukishima. And Ennoshita. But they're…

“...They're not with us anymore, Kageyama. I'm sorry.”

Noya closed his eyes and turned his face to the floor.

“Kinoshita,” he choked, before he had to stop. “Kinoshita, he's...”

Asahi's entire body shuddered for a moment. Noya chanced a glance at Daichi.

The captain nodded once.

“So. This is the rest of us,” he said. “This is… us.”

Noya glanced around at the half-dead group of six and wanted to vomit. Shouyo, all curled up in Kageyama's arms, seemed to grow smaller.

Daichi moved to kneel beside them, and spoke quietly to Kageyama. After a few seconds, he patted him on the shoulder and stood back up, turning to face the others.

“Let's stick together, now,” he said. “No more splitting up.”

“Yeah,” Noya agreed. “So – the last ghost, right? Sachiko, or –”

“Sachiko,” Daichi confirmed. “We appease her, we do the charm backwards, we leave through this door – we go home. You got the tongue, right, Noya?”

“Yeah,” Noya replied. “Yeah, I've got it.”

“And this,” Daichi said, pulling a threadbare cat plush from his jacket pocket, “belongs to her as well. A gift from her mother. That notebook said she might need that as well.”

Asahi's hands were sweaty and cold. Noya looked up at him, only to find him staring straight ahead.

“So now we just need to find her,” Ryu said. “That shouldn't be hard, right?”

“Well, maybe not,” Daichi replied. “There's just one plane now, and all of us are on it. She probably has some idea of where we are, and she'll probably be looking for us.”

“Nice,” Noya said. “We don't have to go looking for the ghost. She'll come to us.”

“Right. And once we appease her, this place will fall apart fast,” Daichi said, standing with his arms crossed, looking at his teammates with a set expression. “So – just to be clear – everyone still has their paper scraps, right? Take 'em out. Lemme see 'em.”

Noya stuck his hand in his pocket and dug around, looking for the tiny scrap. He found it and pulled it out, holding it up and looking around at the others.

Kageyama was holding his scrap up and coaxing Hinata's hand – shakily clinging to his own tiny piece of paper – into the air as well. Daichi was holding his up, and frowning.

Noya turned his head – Ryu had his as well.

“...Oh, fuck,” Daichi breathed.

Noya felt Asahi tense beside him, and looked up.

His heart sank.

Asahi was visibly shaking, so pale he was almost gray. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides. He took a step back, moving jerkily, making eye contact with nobody.

Noya couldn't breathe.

_No. No no no no no._

“You lost yours,” he croaked. “Asahi. Didn't you?”

Asahi forced a smile, and spoke in a voice constricted with terror.

“I'm. It's,” he tried. “You guys. You can. You can go. Without. I'm.”

“Where did you lose it?” Noya demanded.

Asahi shrugged. Tears were starting in his eyes. “I don't… I don't know, I –”

“We're going back to look for it,” Noya declared, turning back to the group. He wasn't losing Asahi. He wasn't leaving him here. It was not an option. “We're not going to stop till we find it.”

Daichi nodded, and then said, “...Although...”

“What?”

“There's another way that could be more… convenient,” Daichi said slowly.

“Great. What is it?”

“You may not like it. But…

“...We can take a paper scrap from… one of the others. The ones that didn't make it. We know where they are. It'll be easy to find them, and if they still have their scraps...”

There was a sick silence.

Noya took hold of Asahi's hand again.

“Well – That sucks – but – anything's better than leaving Asahi,” he said. “And the scraps aren't doing them any good.”

“R-right,” Ryu breathed, looking over at Daichi. “But, Daichi… Ennoshita and Tsukishima, they're...”

Daichi pressed his lips together. “Last resort,” he said. “And I'll do it. The rest of you won't have to go close.”

Asahi's knees shook. “I'm sorry,” he wavered. “I'm sorry –”

“Don't do that,” Noya said, wrapping an arm around his middle and squeezing him. “You don't have anything to be sorry for.”

“Damn right, you don't,” Ryu put in. “Don't worry about it, you big lug.”

Daichi nodded and turned again to Shouyo and Kageyama.

“Can you two tell us where you found Narita?” he asked gently.

“...Yeah,” Kageyama said. “Yeah, it was just – off to the right, that way –”

“We're all going to have to head over that way. Can you carry Hinata, or do you want me to?”

“I've got him,” Kageyama replied. “Hinata – hey...”

He shook Hinata's shoulder and helped him sit up. Hinata's hair was disheveled, and he was pale. Noya tried to smile at him, but he didn't react.

“Shouyo?” Ryu said. “Hanging in there, buddy?”

A small nod.

“Your head hurt?”

“Not too bad,” he mumbled. “Kinda dizzy...”

“Can you still carry him, Kageyama?” Noya asked.

“Of course.”

While those two were getting situated again, Noya took Asahi a few steps aside. Asahi still wouldn't look him in the eye. Noya cupped his chin in his hands.

“Asahi, look at me,” he said in a low voice. “ _Look at me_.”

“I'm sorry,” Asahi wavered. “I'm sorry I'm sorry _I'm sorry –_ ”

“None of that, none of that – You're panicking, Asahi, just try to breathe.”

Asahi closed his eyes and bit his lips together, still trembling madly. Noya stood on tiptoe to kiss him gently.

“You're not getting left behind,” he murmured. “You hear me? There is no way in hell you're getting left behind.”

“But what if we can't find a paper scrap?” Asahi croaked. “If one of us has to stay behind… I wouldn't want anybody else to –”

“Don't do that,” Noya snapped, forcing eye contact now, pulling Asahi down to his eye level, glaring. “We're going to find one. We're all getting out.”

With that, Noya let go of him and turned, smiling, to face the rest of the rest of the group.

Kageyama was carrying Hinata on his back again. He looked tired. Daichi was staring blankly down the hall. Ryu was looking at Noya and Asahi in turn, looking nervous.

“All set to go, guys?” Noya asked, as lightly as he could.

“There was a vague, murmured assent from everybody. Daichi nodded and led the march.

Asahi took Noya's hand. Noya squeezed his fingers, but didn't look up.

He heard Ryu on his other side, and Kageyama and Hinata following close.

He had made up his mind.

\- - -

Daichi continued to lead the way as they progressed through the school again, occasionally calling back to Kageyama to ask for directions. The rest of the group was quiet. They knew they were getting close to the end of this ordeal, but still, they didn't feel safe at all.

They'd all expected Daichi's presence to be reassuring. They'd all expected Suga to come back. Without the usual energy of the team's two oldest members, the rest of them felt so lost.

Noya did his best – bringing up forced small talk with everybody, wherever possible – but it didn't work. There was nothing to say. He couldn't hold up the crushing atmosphere all on his own.

So he stuck with just trying to keep Asahi's chin up, but even that proved difficult.

“Right, up here,” Kageyama called as they reached a branch in the halls. “And then just… follow this one down, and… Narita's down there.”

Daichi nodded without turning around. “I want you all to stay back while I go ahead,” he said. “I don't want you to see him… like that.”

“It's not much farther,” Kageyama said. “Maybe we should stop here?”

“Yeah,” Daichi replied. “You five. Stay. I'll be back in five minutes.”

They stopped walking and watched him go. Kageyama let Hinata down and then crumbled to the floor as soon as he was seated. His breathing was rough. Even somebody as small as Hinata had to get heavy after all this way.

Hinata leaned on Kageyama again, and this time Kageyama flushed a little and glanced around before putting an arm around Hinata's shoulders.

“Sit down,” Noya said to Asahi now. “Rest. You too, Ryu.”

They obeyed, which was terrifying in itself. He looked at them carefully as they leaned back and closed their eyes. Ryu leaned on Asahi. Hinata wriggled closer to Kageyama. There was room for Noya to fit in the middle.

But he didn't want to sit down He, once again, wasn't sure he'd be able to get himself moving if he stopped.

So he talked.

“We're getting out of here, guys,” he said. “Just a little bit longer.”

“What time is it?” Ryu asked. “My parents will freak...”

“The clock on my phone's stopped a little before seven,” Kageyama said, pulling it out of his pocket. “I think that's about when we got here...”

“Huh,” Noya said. “I wonder if time stopped, or just the clocks?”

“I hope to hell it was time that stopped,” Ryu groaned. “Or else my parents will flip the fuck out. We've been in here forever, at least.”

Asahi covered his eyes with his hands and leaned forward. Ryu slapped his shoulder.

“Keep it together, big guy,” he said with a smile. “We're just about home free.”

Asahi nodded but didn't look up.

Noya eyed him carefully, desperate to say something, bot completely out of ideas.

After a few moments' silence, Noya heard the sound of footsteps approaching from down the hall. His heart leapt – he called out, “Daichi? That you?”

“Yes,” Daichi replied.”

“Any luck?” Noya demanded as soon as he was in sight.

Daichi spread his hands wide. Empty.

Noya got a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Nothing,” Daichi elaborated. “Let's move on.”

The rest of the team got to their feet slowly, noticeably more hopeless than before. Noya took Asahi's hand.

They had a bunch more chances. He shuddered to think it – that their dead teammates were just places Asahi could take, now.

It made him want to throw up.

But Asahi was alive.

Any of his teammates would understand…

Daichi took the lead again. The others had to hurry to catch up.

_What if they didn't find a scrap?_

The thought came, unbidden, to the front of Noya's mind.

_What if… we're one short?_

No. No, he'd decided already.

_Asahi is getting out of here._

Kageyama pulled ahead of him, to walk closer to Ryu and Daichi.

And they walked in silence like that, for a long while. Nobody wanted to ask where they were going.

Noya was so caught up in thinking about everything that he didn't immediately notice when Asahi's hand went slack – and he stopped walking, leaving Noya walking on without him.

“Hey –,” Noya started, looking back over his shoulder –

His heart stopped, and his breathing caught.

Asahi was standing completely still, in mid-stride. His eyes were wide open and staring blankly ahead.

Around his neck, Noya could see two small, bluish hands.

Noya shouted aloud and leapt back as a litt'e girl's face appeared over Asahi's shoulder, split with a terrible, perverse grin.

“ _Let go of him!_ ” Noya bellowed, charging towards her – but he hadn't gotten more than a step or two closer before he was thrown backwards. He landed some ten feet away, sliding hard into a wall.

“Everybody, get behind me!” Daichi yelled, holding his arms out wide.

The remaining three didn't hesitate. Noya got to his feet and charged again.

Sachiko's arms wrapped around Asahi's neck and began to squeeze. Asahi's breathing choked off, his eyes grew wide, he reached up and tried to pry the insubstantial limbs off his neck –

Noya couldn't stop himself from yelling out loud as he approached that invisible wall again. He was panicking. Every ounce of fear that he'd felt this whole time was coming forth now, as he watched his reason for fighting being slowly taken from him.

Already, Asahi was turning red.

Noya was almost to him again when Daichi reached out and caught him around the waist with both arms. He barely held him back.

“ _LET GO OF ME!_ ” Noya screamed, throwing an elbow into Daichi's ribs.

Daichi grunted and locked one arm over Noya's chest to hold him still. Once he'd gotten a good hold, he spoke in Noya's ear.

“Fucking _stop it,_ ” he hissed. “We need to give her the tongue. You have that, right?”

Noya suddenly remembered the little bag in his pocket and reached for it.

“Yeah,” he replied, eyes still on Asahi – whose face was turning blue now, his eyes beginning to close. “Now fucking let me go!”

Daichi did so, and Noya ran forward again, holding the tongue bag high.

“SACHIKO!” he shouted, stopping a few feet from her. “This is yours, right? Take it!”

With that, he threw it at her. She reached out with one hand to catch it, leaving the other one crushing Asahi's windpipe.

The bag came to rest in Sachiko's palm.

And nothing happened.

Asahi's eyes closed and his hands started to go slack.

Noya watched, stunned, as Asahi's hands fell to his sides, all out of fight.

Above it all, Sachiko kept grinning.

Somebody pushed Noya out of the way, hard – he toppled over and turned just in time to see Daichi take his place.

Asahi wasn't moving.

And Noya's heart – and the entire _world_ – stopped dead with one thought.

_...Asahi?_

_...He couldn't be… No, he just couldn't…_

Ryu was at his side, suddenly, grabbing him tight and speaking words he couldn't hear over the blood pounding in his ears.

Daichi stepped forward and held up the old cat plush. He was talking, he was yelling – but Noya had no idea what he was saying.

_Asahi._

Ryu hugged him – or was he restraining him? He was shaking. They were both shaking.

Sachiko's grin faltered. She stared at the beat-up old plush in Daichi's hand – eyes wide, almost childlike, almost innocent.

“Let him go,” Daichi said, with no gentleness. “I'll give this to you, and you'll let him go.”

Noya was crying. He could feel tears on his face. He could hear himself – his own, stunted sobs. All his talk of being strong, of just holding out for a little bit longer – all of that was gone now. Suddenly, it made no sense at all.

“ _Asahi_ ,” he whimpered, giving up, leaning on Ryu. “Asahi… _no...”_

Slowly, slowly, Sachiko's other arm let go. Asahi crumpled, limp, to the floor.

Noya pulled free and moved desperately towards him, not even daring to look away.

Daichi passed the stuffed cat to the ghost girl just before Noya reached Asahi. She let out a pathetic little cry, but Noya didn't pay her any attention.

“Asahi,” he croaked, rolling him over onto his back. “Asahi, hey...”

Asahi's chest was still rising and falling. Noya pressed an ear to it and almost cried in relief when he heard a heartbeat still hammering away.

“Oh my god,” he mumbled, and pulled Asahi's head into his lap. “Oh my god, _oh my god..._ ”

Asahi opened his eyes, looking blearily up at him. “Yuu?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

Noya hugged him so tight that he coughed. One hand moved feebly up to his back.

Noya pulled him up to a sitting position and buried his face in his shoulder. “Are you okay?” he demanded.

“I'm… fine,” Asahi managed. “I'm… Yuu, are you crying?”

“Yes, _fuck_ , I'm crying,” Noya wavered, holding still tighter. “That… that scared the _shit_ out of me, Asahi, I...”

He kissed Asahi's forehead, closed his eyes, and focused on getting his breathing under control.

There was silence for a long moment.

A young girl's voice broke it.

“You have to get out of here,” Sachiko wavered. “Quick… You don't have a lot of time...”

Noya felt it now – the shaking beginning in the floor beneath them. Another appeasement – so, of course –

“...Another earthquake?” he demanded, jerking his head up to stare at the little girl.

“What's going to happen?” Daichi asked as the shaking grew stronger.

“This place is going to tear itself apart,” Sachiko said. “And it'll take me over again… And I don't want to think about what will happen to you if you're still here when that happens.”

Daichi grabbed Asahi by both arms and hauled him to his feet. Noya stood up quickly afterward, keeping an eye on Sachiko.

“You know how to get out,” Sachiko said, tears on her cheeks.

“Yes,” Daichi said. “Everybody – come on!”

And they all started to run. They didn't have time to think. They just started moving as fast as they could as the building began to shake harder.

Noya clung to Asahi's hand as tightly as he could.

The trip back to the door went much quicker than they thought it would. They were in the main hall, on the home stretch, when Asahi let go of Noya's hand.

Noya stopped. The others kept going, oblivious.

Noya stared up at Asahi, who was staring at the floor.

“...Yuu, I...” he began.

“Asahi,” Noya said gravely. “Don't do this.”

“What the hell am I supposed to do?” he demanded, in a rush – and then he took a deep breath, and looked up.

He was smiling, but there were tears in his eyes.

“It's okay, Yuu,” he wavered. “It's okay. I'm… I'll stay. I lost my scrap, so… I'll stay, okay?”

Noya's chest was tight and he was cold inside. Frozen, even. He couldn't handle this.

But as much as it scared him…

...He knew what he had to do.

Asahi started to say something again, but Noya grabbed him by the collar, pulled him close, and kissed him hard to shut him up.

A goodbye.

A goodbye that, all this time, he'd never thought he'd have to endure.

Noya reached into the pocket of his jeans, pulled out his paper scrap, and stuffed it into Asahi's palm.

Asahi cried out in protest and Noya took a quick step back from him, hands behind his back so he couldn't try to return it.

“Yuu!” Asahi cried. “Yuu, no!”

Noya grinned. It hurt.

“Shut up, you giant idiot,” he said lightly. “Like you'd last half a second in here by yourself.”

Asahi held the paper out, tried to put it back in Noya's hand, but he kept his fists clenched tight. He fended Asahi off by putting one fist on his chest.

“Stop that,” Noya breathed. “None of that, none of that.”

It _killed_ him to see Asahi's face crumbling like that. He never wanted him to look as scared, as _devastated_ as he did right now. He wanted – he _needed_ – Asahi to be safe, and happy.

“I can't...” Asahi was crying. Tears poured down his face. He was shaking like crazy.

“You can,” Noya smiled.

“If you're not going...” Asahi's voice broke for a second, but he breathed deep and kept going. “...Then I'm not going either.”

Noya shook his head. “Not an option,” he said, calmly, even when all he wanted to do was scream.

Asahi opened his mouth again, but this time it was Daichi who interrupted.

“ASAHI! NISHINOYA!” he roared. “GET OVER HERE NOW!”

Noya grabbed Asahi's hand and pulled him along as fast as he could. There was no other way he'd be able to get him to go.

Oh, _god,_ he was so scared. He was so scared that nothing even seemed real anymore – he was detached from everything somehow; it was all far away. He didn't even feel like he was in control of his body. He told it what to do, and it did it – but it took so much more effort than usual.

He was going to die.

There was no way around it. This was how it was all going to end for him.

And it wasn't fair. Of course he'd pick Asahi's survival over his own, but…

_Why couldn't they all make it?_

Why couldn't he spend the rest of his life – the rest of the life he should have had – with his teammates?

How long would he last in here? A day? A week?

_Don't think about it. Not now. Not till everybody's gone._

They reached the rest of the group. Asahi was outright sobbing now, covering his mouth with his free hand. The school was shaking hard – almost enough to make them lose their balance.

Noya pulled Asahi to a stop a few feet short of the group and pulled him down once more.

“I love you,” he said, giving him one last kiss. He made it last, so he'd be sure to remember it. “I love you. Hang on for me. Okay?”

Asahi nodded, still sobbing uncontrollably.

Noya's chest ached.

“COME ON!” Daichi shouted. “NOYA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Noya let go of Asahi's hand and pushed him forward. “Go on,” he smiled, quietly. “Go on. It's okay. I promise it's okay.”

_It's not okay. It's not okay._

_Please oh god I'm so scared_

Daichi stormed over to them, grabbed them by the fronts of their shirts, and hauled them towards the doors.

“Daichi –” Noya began. “No – I'm – I'm not – ”

“I am not letting you do what you just did,” Daichi growled. “I saw what you did, you fucking tiny idiot.”

He tossed the two of them forward and stood before them all, the fire back in his eyes.

“Noya,” he growled, “We're not leaving you.”

There was a gasp from the other three. Noya ducked his head.

“There's no other option,” he said. “I'm not letting any of you die –”

“ _No other option –_ fuck you, Nishinoya.”

Daichi grabbed Noya's arm and pried his fingers open and crammed his own paper scrap into Noya's hand.

“Diachi!” screamed Ryu and Kageyama in unison.

“Daichi, no,” Noya whispered, eyes stinging. “No… No, please, don't make me do this.”

Daichi smacked him upside the head. “Don't you fucking make me leave you behind,” he snarled, glaring at him. “Look. I'm in charge of you. I'm your captain – I'm supposed to look after you.

“ _Nishinoya, I have failed six times already – do not make me do it again.”_

With that, he shoved Noya backwards. Ryu caught him before he could fall over.

Daichi slapped Asahi's shoulder. “You go, big guy,” he said. “You hang in there. You got this.”

Noya noticed that Hinata was crying – clinging to Kageyama, _slamming_ his head into the back of Kageyama's neck, sobbing out Daichi's name over and over and over.

The school was shaking hard. They wouldn't be able to stand much longer.

“Do the damn charm,” Daichi said. “Get out of here already.”

Noya stared for another stunned moment – then he shook his head to clear it and stood up on his own.

“Come on, guys,” he said. “Scraps out. Once for each of us, once for Sachiko, right?”

“Yep,” Daichi confirmed. “Hurry. All of you.”

They all took their scraps out. Hinata needed encouragement, but soon held his out, and lifted his face out of Kageyama's shoulder.

“Six times,” Noya said, taking Asahi's hand again. Ryu wrapped his free arm around Noya's neck.

They put the paper scraps in the middle. Noya looked around, counted down from three, and they began.

_Come on, Tsukishima, it's just fun._

_Tsukki! Join us!_

_...If it'll make you all shut up._

“Sachiko, we beg of you,” the remaining teammates said as one.

Twice. Three times.

_What happens if we screw it up?_

Noya looked over his shoulder at Daichi one more time.

He was standing here with his arms crossed and his feet apart, that expression of determination they'd all seen so many times firmly in place.

But it wasn't the same. His eyes were still so dead.

Four. Five.

Noya closed his eyes and squeezed Asahi's hand.

All five of them were crying as they said it the sixth time.

The building shook even harder. The floor began to crack apart.

“Out the door,” Daichi said, far too calm. “Go on.”

Noya nodded and dragged Ryu and Asahi along. Ryu grabbed the front of Kageyama's shirt.

And, clinging to each other like that, they pushed the door open, and stepped out into blinding white.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway yeah, epilogue next time. I'll try and have it up quick, because who wants to wait for an epilogue.
> 
> I'm going to be on vacation until Sunday, and I won't have Internet. Even so, feel free to drop me a line at i-homeostasis.tumblr.com if you want to! I've met a lot of awesome people that way, and in a way it's the most fun part of all this! I'll get back to you as soon as I can. :D
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me, guys. 
> 
> Now I gotta go because my family is pretty much waiting for me in the car so we can leave and I've kept them waiting for like an entire hour so yeah I should go bye


	14. Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and so we finish this.

It was quiet again, eventually.

When Kageyama opened his eyes, he found that he was seated, back in Karasuno – back in the gym, in the place he came to every day after school.

How alien it looked now.

Hinata let go of him slowly.

“...We're back,” Noya said. “We're. We're actually… _We're back._ ”

Kageyama looked over at him, and at Azumane and Tanaka. They all looked just as dazed as he felt. Azumane was still crying.

He heard a small sniffle from behind him, and looked over his shoulder at Hinata.

He was curled into a little ball, chin on his knees, staring blankly into space, tears pouring from his eyes.

Kageyama's chest suddenly ached.

“Hinata,” he croaked, extending his arm. “Hinata, we...”

The smaller boy didn't move.

“We didn't make it,” Hinata wavered, without the slightest change of expression. “We… We didn't all...”

“Shouyo...” Tanaka breathed, “Shouyo, don't –”

“ _It's all my fault,_ ” Hinata whispered, finally looking Kageyama in the eye. “I was the one who said we should do the charm, and… and...”

“Idiot – hey – there's – there's no way you could have known –”

“IT'S MY FAULT THEY DIED!” Hinata suddenly screamed, eyes panicked-wide, grabbing handfuls of his own hair and tugging hard.

“Hinata–!”

“Suga… and Tsukishima,” Hinata wavered, “and Narita and Yamaguchi and Kinoshita and… and Daichi –”

“Hinata!” Kageyama shouted, getting to his knees, grabbing Hinata by the shoulders – shaking him, hoping to rattle some kind of sense into that useless fluffy head of his. “Hinata, you _idiot –_ listen to me! _Look_ at me, and _listen!_ ”

Hinata managed it, but kept crying.

Without really deciding to do so, Kageyama brushed away his tears with his thumbs. He cupped Hinata's chin in his hands.

“Listen to me,” he repeated. “Hinata… you couldn't have possibly known what was going to happen. None of us blame you.”

“Shouyo,” Noya called. “He's right, buddy. It's… it's okay –”

“ _It's not okay,_ ” Hinata interrupted, shaking his head. “It's not, it's _not –_ ”

“Hey! Is everything okay in here?”

The hairs on the back of Kageyama's neck stood up – an unfamiliar voice had just spoken, called out from the direction of the locker room.

He turned around and found a boy he'd never seen before in his life standing at the opposite end of the gym. This boy looked at the six survivors first with concern, and then with confusion.

“Hinata?” he asked. “Asahi? Are you guys okay?”

They were all staring at him in stunned, _sick_ silence.

It wasn't immediately obvious, but after looking for a second or two, they all noticed.

In his left hand, this completely unknown boy was holding the captain's jersey.

Kageyama's heart stopped.

“Wh… what are you doing with Daichi's uniform?!” Hinata demanded, pointing at him with one shivering hand. “What are you...”

The boy looked down at his jersey and then back up, even more confused. “...Daichi?” he asked. “I'm… What? Hinata? Who's Daichi?”

Hinata nearly fainted. Kageyama moved quickly to catch him, and held him close – partly to reassure him, but mostly to keep him from yelling again. His own thoughts were far too muddled for this… for Hinata to panic on top of that…

“It's nothing, captain,” Noya said, getting to his feet. “He hit his head pretty hard just now...”

“Well, crimeny, get him to the hospital if he's hit it so hard that he's forgotten who I am,” the captain frowned. “And – damn, Tanaka, why are you covered in blood?”

“Nothing,” Tanaka said. “Nothing. I'm. Uh. Let's. Let's go, guys. Hinata, we'll get you all fixed up.”

The captain continued to watch them all with apprehension as they filed out of the gym, into the cold night air.

They managed to stay silent for long enough that they were out of earshot.

Tanaka was the one who finally asked.

“ _Who the fuck was that?_ ” he demanded.

“I don't know,” Noya replied quietly. “I just… I don't fucking know.”

They were quiet again. Even Hinata had stopped crying. He clung to Kageyama's arm so tight that Kageyama was already beginning to lose circulation in his fingers. His face was blank. It was almost as if the little ball of sunshine had shut down completely.

“So does that mean… Daichi and the others, they...”

Tanaka didn't finish his sentence. He didn't have the heart to.

“I don't want to think about it,” Noya replied.

Further silence, which continued until they reached a fork in the road. They paused here, and looked at each other.

“Hospital's this way,” Kageyama said.

“You want us to come along?” Noya asked.

“No… No, you get home. We'll be okay.”

“Okay. If you're sure.”

Nobody moved.

Kageyama looked at his shoes. What were they all supposed to say, or do? He didn't want to leave his team. He was afraid they would disappear if he looked away, or even blinked.

“You okay, Shouyo?” Tanaka asked, with a brave attempt at a smile.

Hinata nodded.

“...Try to come to school tomorrow,” Noya said. “If you can. Shouyo, if you're really messed up, I don't want you showing up, but… I want to see you guys, so...”

Kageyama nodded. “Okay. Yeah.”

Noya clapped the two of them on the shoulders. “Take care, you two,” he said quietly. “ You have my number, yeah? Call me, text me, if you need anything.”

“Yeah.”

They were quiet. Already out of things to say.

“I'm gonna take Hinata,” Kageyama said finally.

“Yeah. Yeah, you do that.”

With that, they split up, Hinata and Kageyama one way; Noya, Asahi, and Tanaka the other.

All of them had been gone so long that they'd nearly forgotten their way around town.

\- - -

It was twenty minutes after seven when Kageyama got Hinata to the clinic a little ways from the school. It wasn't busy; there wasn't much of a wait. They took Hinata in right away – they seemed to know him, and it figured, with how clumsy he was – and Kageyama too, when Hinata asked for him.

There were a lot of questions – what happened, has he been acting disoriented, did he throw up, did he lose consciousness – and Kageyama answered mechanically. The doctors had Hinata answer some things, too, and shined a light in his eyes. Eventually, they said that he didn't have any serious damage, but also that he shouldn't play volleyball for a week or two. They cleaned the cut on his forehead, bandaged it, and then asked Kageyama what had happened to his neck.

Kageyama said he didn't know. They let it go.

They gave Hinata an ice pack and asked him for his parents' number. He mumbled that they were out of town. They asked Kageyama if there was anybody else they could call, to get the two of them home.

Kageyama almost said Sugawara's name on reflex. He caught himself, and gave Takeda's number instead, a sick feeling in his stomach. They let him use the phone.

Takeda answered the phone cheerfully. Kageyama told him where they were, and he immediately flew into a panic.

“Sir,” Kageyama said. “It's okay – Hinata's okay, I swear.”

“How did he hurt himself that badly in _half an hour_?” Takeda fretted. “I can't leave him alone for even a little, can I?”

“I guess not. But… his parents are out of town, and mine… well.”

Not home. Never home. He didn't have to say it.

“...Anyway – can you come get us? Sorry to call you like this, but –”

“Is Takeshi too busy to take you? He has a car, right?”

“Takeshi?” Kageyama asked before he could stop himself.

“Oh – oh, right, he left right before I did, didn't he?” Takeda said, more to himself than to Kageyama. “Sorry, sorry – yes, I'll come get you. It was thinking maybe it would be faster if Takeshi came for you, but – yes, don't worry, I'll be there in five.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Kageyama?”

“Hm?”

“Is everything okay? You sound worn down.”

Kageyama closed his eyes.

“I'm just tired, I guess,” was all he said.

\- - -

Takeda arrived at the clinic soon afterwards, and, after quickly telling the doctors who he was, and calling Hinata's parents' cell phones (leaving a message), he collected the two boys and got them situated in his car.

Kageyama helped Hinata get into the backseat and then sat beside him, letting Hinata lean on him again.

Hinata was clad of it. He didn't want to let go again. His head felt better, but his neck still hurt a little. That wasn't the problem, though; he still couldn't think straight.

Thinking of the ones they'd lost, now that they were back home – it didn't… hurt the same way. Or maybe it hurt too much.

Either way, Hinata didn't want to cry anymore. In fact, he felt like he couldn't.

Just now, all he wanted was Kageyama.

“Okay – so – Kageyama, where do you live?” Takeda asked. “Closer than Hinata, right?”

“Oh, uh –”

Hinata tugged on his arm.

“Ow – what, Hinata?”

He looked down, not half as angry as he sounded.

“Can… can you stay at my house tonight?” Hinata asked in a small voice.

“Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Takeda, hey – I'll just go home with Hinata, okay?”

“As long as you promise not to kill each other,” Takeda said. “Did I miss something? How long have you two been getting along so well?”

Kageyama shrugged.

“Well, anyway, I'm happy,” Takeda said, beaming at them in the mirror. “It's a good thing.”

“Yeah,” Kageyama mumbled. “I guess it is.”

Hinata felt himself nodding. He pulled his knees up under the hoodie and leaned heavily on Kageyama's shoulder.

He closed his eyes, and, mercifully, his brain shut up for a little while.

\- - -

“Hinata. Hey. Wake up.”

He opened his eyes slowly and found Kageyama's face close to his own. He pulled away a little and dug a fist into his eye.

“You're home,” Kageyama said. “Come on. Wake up.”

Hinata nodded. “Time is it?” he mumbled.

“Only like eight.”

“Okay.”

“Take it easy for a couple of days, Hinata,” Takeda said, leaning out of the car window as they got out. “If you really want to go to practice tomorrow, I won't stop you – but none of your crazy jumping around, okay?”

Hinata nodded mutely.

Takeda grimaced at him, concerned. Hinata wouldn't meet his eyes.

The teacher spoke to Kageyama next.

“Look after him, okay?” he said.

“I will.”

With that, Takeda rolled up the window and they walked to the door. He watched them up the stairs and waited until they were inside to drive off.

Kageyama closed the door behind them. Hinata stepped forward.

“Natsu,” he called out. “I'm home.”

Small yet thundering footsteps hammered their way down the stairs, closely accompanied by a shrill little voice.

“Shou!” Natsu shouted. “You're late!”

“You have a sister?” Kageyama asked.

Hinata didn't have time to respond before the little girl skidded to a stop just inside the entryway. She had an expression of annoyance on her face – and it changed to one of confusion when she saw the new person.

“Who're you?” Natsu demanded of Kageyama. Even dressed in her light pink pajamas, even though she stood at about four feet tall, she looked formidable.

“I'm –” Kageyama began, but Natsu now noticed the bandaged wrapped around Hinata's head.

“What happened?” she frowned, crossing her arms. “Wait – are you that mean boy Shou talks about all the time? Did you beat him up? I'll beat you up!”

“ _Natsu_ ,” Hinata groaned. “It's _okay._ Kageyama's staying the night with us. He's a friend.”

Natsu squinted at him. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Jeez.”

Clearly not satisfied. Natsu stepped aside to let them by. Hinata gave her a tired smile as they passed.

The kitchen was a bit of a mess. That was his fault for being late, and forcing Natsu to make her own dinner. He'd have to clean it up later…

But he was too tired, right now…

They passed into the living room. Here, Kageyama paused, and started to ask something about sleeping on the couch, but Hinata grabbed his hand and pulled him on.

Like hell he was letting him out of his sight tonight.

He dragged Kageyama upstairs and flopped down on his futon without letting go of his hand.

Kageyama stayed standing, awkwardly. He wiggled his fingers, to try and get him to let go.

“Please,” Hinata said, holding on tighter, looking up at Kageyama with eyes filling up with tears. “Kageyama, I...”

“Okay, okay… don't cry, idiot...”

Kageyama sat down beside him, perched awkwardly on the edge of the futon.

It was too late for that. Hinata couldn't hold back anymore.

He fell back and curled into a ball, one arm thrown across his eyes as he began to cry so hard he felt like he would crack open. He tried to be quiet, so Natsu wouldn't hear – but he couldn't – it hurt, it _hurt…_

“Hinata… Hinata...”

Kageyama's weight shifted. Warmth, close at hand. Blind, Hinata reached out for it. His hand found Kageyama's chest, right there, close enough for a heartbeat. He gripped the fabric of his shirt.

Kageyama hugged him tight. He felt him kiss his hair again.

“You're safe now,” Kageyama said – and his voice trembled too, because he wasn't sure either. “Hinata...”

They clung tight together as the ghosts swirled about them. They cried. There was too much, and there were simply no words. They cried until they fell asleep, all tangled up.

Hinata stayed awake longer. For a few delirious minutes, he looked at at Kageyama, asleep beside him.

Even tearstained, blotchy from crying, hair all tangled and disheveled, Kageyama… somehow, he…

 _Just tired,_ he caught himself. Just tired, just soul-deep exhausted.

He curled up tight and focused on keeping warm. And he tried, as hard as he could, to believe what he'd said. He tried to focus on the fact that he was still alive, and that Kageyama was still alive, and Noya, and Asahi, and Tanaka…

Anything, anything at all, to forget the pain of those they'd – _he'd_ – left behind.

Anything to cover up the image of Daichi's set, determined face, as they'd left him alive in that hell of a school.

He eventually slept, but not well. Nightmares whirled about his head, all so close to reality that he couldn't tell them apart. Every time he woke up, Kageyama was right there beside him, ready to bring him right back.

They were safe, but returning from that school – really returning, pulling themselves all the way back from those dark, death-smelling halls – it would take a long, long time.

Hinata wondered if he could possibly live long enough to see it happen.

 

\- - -

 

The lights were out and the car was gone from the driveway when the other three arrived at Noya's house. Now that he thought about it, Noya couldn't remember if he'd locked the doors before he'd left that morning. When he was left home alone, he sometimes forgot.

Normally, it was a little sad, coming come to an empty house. Today, though, it was better. They needed to be alone.

Noya pulled the front door open – he _had_ forgotten to lock it – and led Asahi and Ryu inside.

“Okay,” he said, flicking on the front room light. “Ryu, lemme fix the back of your head. Asahi, can you go grab a shirt for him out of my room? His is all covered in blood.”

Asahi nodded and walked out of the room. Noya watched him carefully. He seemed really shaky still, though he was obviously trying to hide it. He'd make him lie down in a little bit.

He didn't really want to let Asahi out of his sight, but knew he had to. Asahi needed time to decompress, now of all times especially.

Noya forced himself to tear his attention away from Asahi and pushed Ryu towards a kitchen chair.

“Get that shirt off and wait for me to get a first aid kit,” he said. Ryu nodded and did what he was told.

Noya looked carefully at the cut on his head. It was long – almost ear to ear – and jagged, but mostly scabbed over. Scalp wounds bled a lot, Noya knew; it was really lucky that it had stopped bleeding on its own.

“I'll clean it real quick and then bandage it,” Noya said. “You okay, buddy? You're all shaky.”

Ryu's hands were clasped tightly in his lap. At the last question, he sighed and flicked his head from side to side a few times, shaking himself back to reality.

“I'm… well, I...”

He hid his face in his hands.

“Yuu, I saw what happened to Suga,” he said in a very small voice. “And… I keep thinking, like… it can't have happened, right?”

Noya's heart stopped. “Ryu…”

“Suga can't be gone, right? He's _Suga;_ we _need_ him,” Ryu went on – the beginnings of shivering sobs in his voice. “When I go to sleep tonight, and wake up – this'll all have just been a dream, right? I'll wake up and it'll all have just been a really, really bad –”

He cut himself off. He'd started to cry.

“Ryu...”

Nya hurried around in front of him and hugged him tight. Ryu buried his face in Noya's shoulder and sniffled hard.

“We're gonna be okay, buddy,” Noya said, feeling tears prickling his own eyes. “I'm here for you. No matter what. I swear.”

Ryu nodded. “Yeah… Yeah, I… I just...”

He lifted his head off Noya's shoulder and rubbed his eyes. Noya held him at arm's length, watching him carefully until he got himself under control.

“It's just… too _much_ ,” he said, less wobbly now. “It shouldn't have ever happened, and now… we just have to deal with it?”

“It's going to be hard. Really, really hard,” Noya said.

“But we can do it.

“We can live through this, because everybody – all the others – they would want us to. They'd want us to keep going, and they'd all give us hell if we didn't.”

Ryu closed his eyes and dropped his head into his hands again. Saying no more, Noya cleaned and dressed his wound.

Asahi came back in while he was doing this. He had a big gray t-shirt in one hand.

“You actually found one that would fit me?” Ryu asked, incredulous. “In this little guy's closet?”

At this, Asahi turned a little pink. “It's actually one of mine,” he mumbled, tossing it over.

“It's like a damn nightshirt on me,” Noya commented. “About goes to my knees.”

“Whatever works,” Ryu said, catching it and putting it on.

“Are you guys hungry?” Noya asked. “I've got some food here, somewhere, probably.”

“Nah,” Ryu shook his head. “Just… tired.”

“Me too,” Asahi said. “I'm really tired.”

Noya nodded.

“I am, too,” he said. “So… you guys call your parents, tell 'em where you are… then we'll just go get some sleep.”

\- - -

Tanaka woke up with a start in the middle of the night, all in a cold sweat, breathing hard.

He'd had a nightmare.

The ones they'd left behind. Everybody had forgotten. They were all _hanging_ right there, right in front of them, but nobody, _nobody_ knew what he was screaming about.

_And Suga… Suga, he…_

Tanaka sat straight up and looked around frantically. His hands were icy cold and shaky as hell.

He looked to his left, and there were Yuu and Asahi, crammed close beside him on Yuu's small bed. He watched them and listened carefully until he was absolutely sure they were breathing.

Yuu shifted a little, closer to Asahi, who moved his arm to accommodate him without waking up.

Alive. Alive. Both of them…

He fumbled in the dark for his phone and eventually found it. It took him a few tries to find the lock button.

He had to know.

_He had to know._

Unsteady fingers unlocked the phone and scrolled through his messages. Yamamoto. _Yamamoto, please, man…_

 

> Yamamoto. Please tell me you remember Daichi Sawamura.

 

He glanced at the clock. It was two-thirty in the morning. He prayed that Yamamoto was awake – he wouldn't be able to handle the wait…

 

>> Tanaka what the fuck kind of time is this are you aware of what time it is

> Sawamura. Tell me you remember.

 

Tanaka's heart was pounding as he waited. He was restless. He could hardly breathe.

When the screen lit up again, he almost dropped the phone in his haste to read it.

 

> Nah, doesn't ring any bells. So why did you text me at two-fucking-AM to ask me if I remember whoever that is?

 

Tanaka felt like throwing up.

 

> Daichi Sawamura. My team's captain.

>> I could have sworn it was something completely different?? I thought it was fuckin Maeda??

> Never mind

>> You ok bro??

> Yeah. Nvm

 

Tanaka dropped the phone to the floor with a clatter and covered his face with both hands, immediately bursting into loud, uncontrollable sobs.

“Ryu – buddy, hey...”

Yuu was there, _shaking_ him – he rolled over and let himself hide away in Yuu's arms.

“Ryu… hey...”

He was choking. He couldn't breathe. His chest hurt so badly that it had to be about to explode.

“They've forgotten,” he sobbed. “They… Daichi… And Suga, and…”

 _Suga._ Ripped to pieces, left alone to rot in that place, all _alone…_

Tanaka retched. Yuu pulled away. “Asahi, go grab him some water, please,” he said quickly.

Asahi went off to do that and Tanaka gritted his teeth and fought to get his breathing under control.

Yuu rubbed his back. “You're hyperventilating, buddy,” he said. “Calm down… C'mon…”

Tanaka clung to the front of Yuu's shirt, and he tried. He tried as hard as he could.

Asahi returned with the glass of water and helped Yuu prop him up to drink it. He spilled half of it down his front, but managed to get some down.

Yuu rubbed his shoulder. Asahi watched him, all concern.

He wouldn't stop shaking, and sweating…

“You're okay, bud,” Yuu whispered. “You're okay… you're safe…”

Tanaka handed the empty glass to Asahi, and then laid back, letting himself take comfort from his best friend's arms.

After a long, long while, he drifted off again; and this time, his dreams were actually peaceful – or, really, he had no dreams at all.

 

\- - -

 

It was dark for a very long time. There were vague impressions of falling, and crumbling, and pressing back together. For a while, nothing made sense. For a while, everything was a leaf in a hurricane, screaming and disorderly and all torn up.

When he came back to himself – when there was finally a point of light, somewhere behind him – all he felt was a hollowness in his chest; a rough, ragged hole.

He could see his legs out in front of him, but not the surface they lay upon. When he moved his hands into his line of vision, they obeyed him, but they felt strange, as though he wasn't fully attached to his own body.

Was he breathing? He couldn't be sure. Did it matter? No, he decided. No, it didn't matter at all.

Wherever he was, he didn't feel the need to move. Right here was just fine.

He hurt, and his brain was all cold, frozen, tired. _Tired._

Maybe this was all the rest he'd get. Maybe this was Hell, down here in the dark, left here to see the faces, the corpses, for however long he would last.

After what he'd let happen, it was all he deserved.

“Daichi.”

The voice was right in front of him, but he couldn't see him. He felt the shadow on his cheek.

“Kou,” he breathed. “Kou, that's you, isn't it?”

He closed his eyes.

“...Yes,” Kou's voice replied. “Yes, I'm… It's me. I'm here, Daichi.”

“You're dead, aren't you.”

“I am.”

“Am I dead?”

“You… No, you're not. You're… not.”

Daichi reached up to touch the hand he felt on his cheek. There wasn't anything there. His fingers brushed his own skin.

“You're really here?” Daichi asked.

“Yes. Yes, and I'll stay with you as long as I can, I swear.”

He let his hand fall. It landed on nothing.

They were quiet, both of them, for a little while. Daichi couldn't hear anything at all.

“Do you hurt, Kou?” he finally asked, in a very rough voice.

“It's not too bad…”

“But you do? You're in pain?”

“…Daichi, it's not a big deal…”

“It _is_ ,” Daichi snapped. “It's because of me that you're in pain.”

“No, it's because I was an idiot and ran off by myself,” the specter snapped right back. The hand on Daichi's cheek slapped him lightly. “Don't do that. I won't have you putting that on yourself.”

More silence.

And Daichi was choking, suddenly, on all of it.

He burst into tears.

“I'm so sorry, Kou,” he whimpered – Kou moved close, making quiet noises of reassurance. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…”

“You don't have anything to be sorry for.”

“I let them die. Tsukishima, and Ennoshita, and Yamaguchi, and Kinoshita and Narita… I was supposed to – but I –”

“Shh – Daichi –” ghostly lips kissed his forehead. “Daichi – hey – quiet down, okay? Quiet...”

Daichi covered his face and tried his hardest to do what he said. He didn't feel able.

Kou held him close. His invisible limbs had no warmth or cold or pulse; only a soft, familiar presence that Daichi could easily have mistaken for his imagination.

“God, I'd do anything…” Daichi wavered. “I didn't want… Not you, never you…”

“Daichi.”

Another kiss.

“Daichi, please. None of us blame you. None of us blame anybody. None of us expected this. We couldn't have planned for it.”

Daichi saw the edges of his body starting to fade. Black smoke was rolling in.

“Kou.”

“Yes?”

“I'm going to die here, aren't I?

“...Yes.”

“...”

“...”

“...Kou?”

“Yes?”

“You'll stay with me?”

“For as long as I can.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course.”

Linked fingers – fading and faded.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

The two of them were quiet then. Somewhere above them, below them, perhaps _within_ them, the fabric of that terrible school was stitching itself back together. The ghostly screams began again – still, as of yet, outside of their range of hearing.

Soon enough it would reach them; soon enough it would become them, and they it.

For now, they had each other – if that much could even still be said.

For now, they could last.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there, guys.
> 
> You didn't need that last bit in your life did you lol
> 
> To completely kill whatever mood I created there at the end, I'm gonna say thank you. Thanks a lot, all of you, for reading. It means a lot.
> 
> This was the first fic I ever wrote, and to be perfectly honest, I felt really, /really/ weird about it for most of the process. Like I took fuckin Haikyuu and threw it into Gore Porn: The Video Game. Violently killing half of the main cast of your favorite show is quite a way to start out contributing to your fandom. (Also I still haven't finished the anime?? Or the manga??? what kind of fan am I)
> 
> That aside, though, I really didn't expect this to get any kind of attention. I started writing this in October - almost exactly six months ago, actually - and I didn't expect it to last this long, especially with school and stuff. I expected to burn out really fast.
> 
> But really it put me on a roll. I'd just finished out a couple of really big writing projects (a year-long, story-a-day challenge I set up for myself, plus motherfucking NaNoWriMo - which I did complete by the way - 52,000 words!) when I really started getting into TFL, and it kept me from stagnating. It was nice to branch out.
> 
> And without you guys there to let me know that what I was doing here was good, to some extent (though y'all aren't okay with Suga are you - don't worry I'm not either), I would not have finished it. I would have just felt too silly to keep going. So just know that all those tears you shed were for a good cause. 
> 
> And while we're still emotional, lemme tell you about the original proposal for this story. Astro, my sister (astroslinky.tumblr.com), is the one who came up with this idea. She wrote down all the fates she wanted to befall the characters. They were all essentially the same as they turned out here, with a few key differences.
> 
> \- Originally, Daichi survived. Instead, Noya stayed behind in Asahi's place and eventually starved to death. I, being the Noya enthusiast that I am, promptly scrapped that and fixed it thank you very much
> 
> \- Do you know about Ayumi and Yoshiki's Bad End for Chapter 2 of Blood Covered? In case you don't, and really I don't recommend googling that if you're squeamish - though if you are, how did you get this far, I guess - basically, it involves batshit insanity, death, and cannibalism.  
> Now, I'm not going to go into huge details here, but that was what was supposed to happen to Yams and Tsukki, with Yams standing in for Ayumi and Tsukki for Yoshiki. I decided that 1) I didn't know how to write that, 2) I couldn't fit it into a plot, 3) I didn't want to add 'cannibalism' to my tags, and 4) ew, and therefore decided to remove it.  
> Like seriously jesus christ astro
> 
> \- Suga was supposed to get like completely eviscerated. Like think Mayu in Book of Shadows. Needless to say, there was not supposed to be any lingering there.
> 
> \- I don't remember a whole lot else about the original plot, but I do remember that there were paragraphs for all the pairings, nothing at all for the Disgraced Second Years, and two words for Tanaka: 'Tanaka's fine'.  
> As you know, that didn't play out either.
> 
> So basically if this story hurt you just be fucking grateful that Astro wasn't in charge holy shit
> 
> One more thing before I let you go: I have a couple more fics in the sketchy stages! One is fairly mundane, as they go: just a college AU. There will still be heartache - I promise you I will pile on the heartache - but nobody's getting brutally murdered by ghosts in this one, lads. It's all real-world hurt. Though sometimes that's worse, really.
> 
> The other is more Tokyo Ghoul-ish, combined with aspects of an original work of mine. 
> 
> The second one may take a long while if you see it at all; the first one I'll start working on pretty quick. :D
> 
> I'll be posting updates on the progress of those future fics as I get to them; check out i-homeostasis.tumblr.com/tagged/totw-updates for the aforementioned college AU. :D
> 
> Anyway, I've gone on long enough.
> 
> Thank you so much, guys. It really does mean a lot that you're still here! I love you all.


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